Combat
Dead Nerves • Passive
You are immune to disease and terror.
When you fall to 0 life, you remain conscious, you can continue to act, and you don’t have to roll to stabilize. This effect lasts for about 10 minutes, or until you take damage.
Death Curse • Action
Once each session, describe how you invoke death → Gain creative license to kill a creature within a far distance that isn’t significantly more powerful than you.
Plaguebearer • Passive
When you gain this trait, work with your GM to create a disease and write it on your character sheet. You can spread this disease by its normal transmission method or through a damaging attack. Creatures that you personally infect experience early symptoms immediately, and late symptoms in a matter of seconds of minutes; roll to determine how soon. You are immune to this disease.
Raise Dead • Slow Action
Describe how you return a dead creature to unlife → The target reanimates as an undead slave that you control. It has the same attributes it had in life, fully healed. Work with your GM to determine the dire cost (it will try to break free of your control and betray you, it slowly drains your life essence, its soul will haunt you upon release, etc).
Undying • Passive
Work with the GM to create a death condition (decapitated, destroyed phylactery, staked in the heart, etc). Unless you die under those conditions, gain creative license to reanimate within about 1 day to 1 week (the GM decides when) with full life. You are temporarily weakened (the GM decides how and for how long).
If you die and don’t have this trait, you can work with your GM to permanently sacrifice something (memories, your humanity, stats, etc) and immediately gain this trait.
Vampirism • Passive
Whenever you make an attack that damages a worthy creature, heal one-tenth of your life.
You are immune to disease and terror.
When you fall to 0 life, you remain conscious, you can continue to act, and you don’t have to roll to stabilize. This effect lasts for about 10 minutes, or until you take damage.
Death Curse • Action
Once each session, describe how you invoke death → Gain creative license to kill a creature within a far distance that isn’t significantly more powerful than you.
Plaguebearer • Passive
When you gain this trait, work with your GM to create a disease and write it on your character sheet. You can spread this disease by its normal transmission method or through a damaging attack. Creatures that you personally infect experience early symptoms immediately, and late symptoms in a matter of seconds of minutes; roll to determine how soon. You are immune to this disease.
Raise Dead • Slow Action
Describe how you return a dead creature to unlife → The target reanimates as an undead slave that you control. It has the same attributes it had in life, fully healed. Work with your GM to determine the dire cost (it will try to break free of your control and betray you, it slowly drains your life essence, its soul will haunt you upon release, etc).
Undying • Passive
Work with the GM to create a death condition (decapitated, destroyed phylactery, staked in the heart, etc). Unless you die under those conditions, gain creative license to reanimate within about 1 day to 1 week (the GM decides when) with full life. You are temporarily weakened (the GM decides how and for how long).
If you die and don’t have this trait, you can work with your GM to permanently sacrifice something (memories, your humanity, stats, etc) and immediately gain this trait.
Vampirism • Passive
Whenever you make an attack that damages a worthy creature, heal one-tenth of your life.
Exploration
Despoiler • Action
Describe how you spread necrotic energy → You cause everything within a midrange distance to wither, rot, or age 100 years (food rots, iron bars rust, wooden doors mold and crack, etc). This doesn’t affect creatures.
Foul Appetite • Slow Action
When you gain this trait, work with the GM to create a foul appetite (eat living flesh, drink blood, absorb nightmares, etc). This is now the one and only biological need you must regularly satisfy. Work with the GM to determine what happens when you satisfy it (enhanced senses, renewed youth, accelerated healing, etc), and what happens when you don’t satisfy it (crippling pain, cracked and bloody skin, uncontrollable bloodlust, etc).
Haunt • Slow Action
Describe how you haunt an area → Work with the GM to determine how your essence haunts an area (a haunted house won’t let guests leave, a haunted forest attracts undead spirits, a ship gains an undying ghostly crew, etc). You can only haunt one area at a time.
Hunt the Living • Passive
When you gain this trait, work with the GM to determine how you can detect and track the living (smell fear, hear heartbeats, sense nightmares, etc).
Unlife and Unlimb • Passive
You can attach and reattach your body parts. You can control your detached body parts and sense the world through them (feel with a detached finger, see with a detached eyeball, crawl with a detached hand, etc). If you ever lose a body part, you can reattach a similar body part from another creature and it becomes part of your body (this never affects your attributes).
Wraith Form • Action
Describe how you become incorporeal → You and your equipment become ethereal, or you return to your normal form.
Describe how you spread necrotic energy → You cause everything within a midrange distance to wither, rot, or age 100 years (food rots, iron bars rust, wooden doors mold and crack, etc). This doesn’t affect creatures.
Foul Appetite • Slow Action
When you gain this trait, work with the GM to create a foul appetite (eat living flesh, drink blood, absorb nightmares, etc). This is now the one and only biological need you must regularly satisfy. Work with the GM to determine what happens when you satisfy it (enhanced senses, renewed youth, accelerated healing, etc), and what happens when you don’t satisfy it (crippling pain, cracked and bloody skin, uncontrollable bloodlust, etc).
Haunt • Slow Action
Describe how you haunt an area → Work with the GM to determine how your essence haunts an area (a haunted house won’t let guests leave, a haunted forest attracts undead spirits, a ship gains an undying ghostly crew, etc). You can only haunt one area at a time.
Hunt the Living • Passive
When you gain this trait, work with the GM to determine how you can detect and track the living (smell fear, hear heartbeats, sense nightmares, etc).
Unlife and Unlimb • Passive
You can attach and reattach your body parts. You can control your detached body parts and sense the world through them (feel with a detached finger, see with a detached eyeball, crawl with a detached hand, etc). If you ever lose a body part, you can reattach a similar body part from another creature and it becomes part of your body (this never affects your attributes).
Wraith Form • Action
Describe how you become incorporeal → You and your equipment become ethereal, or you return to your normal form.
Interaction
Aura of Death • Action
Describe how you emit a chilling aura → You emit an invisible aura of death out to a midrange distance for about 1 minute. Living creatures feel the aura as an unsettling, sinking feeling that is deeply disturbing. They gain the overwhelming desire to leave the aura as quickly as possible unless they have an extremely good reason to stay.
Audience with the Reaper • Slow Action
Describe how you reach out to the realm beyond → You contact Death itself. Death can spare the dying, revive the dead, kill the living, or reveal information about its dark work — but always at a price.
Lay to Rest • Slow Action
Describe how you treat a dead or dying creature with ceremony → Write the name of the creature on your character sheet. At any point, you may cross the name off your character sheet and invoke the creature to gain their supernatural aid (increase a roll to do something the creature would be adept at, recall a fact the creature would know, etc.).
Medium • Slow Action
Describe how you contact dead spirits → You draw forth a dead spirit, who must speak with you. However, it is under no obligation to be helpful. You can draw forth a specific spirit if you are near something that was important to it in life.
Possess • Action
Describe how you possess a corpse or helpless creature that you’re touching → You vanish and take control of the target’s body. You and the possessed can hear each other’s thoughts, you use the possessed creature’s attributes instead of your own (you retain access to this trait), and you take the same damage that the possessed body takes. When the possession ends, you reappear in an adjacent space. The possession ends when it should logically end (you enter hallowed ground, someone performs an exorcism, the willingly leave the host, etc).
Describe how you emit a chilling aura → You emit an invisible aura of death out to a midrange distance for about 1 minute. Living creatures feel the aura as an unsettling, sinking feeling that is deeply disturbing. They gain the overwhelming desire to leave the aura as quickly as possible unless they have an extremely good reason to stay.
Audience with the Reaper • Slow Action
Describe how you reach out to the realm beyond → You contact Death itself. Death can spare the dying, revive the dead, kill the living, or reveal information about its dark work — but always at a price.
Lay to Rest • Slow Action
Describe how you treat a dead or dying creature with ceremony → Write the name of the creature on your character sheet. At any point, you may cross the name off your character sheet and invoke the creature to gain their supernatural aid (increase a roll to do something the creature would be adept at, recall a fact the creature would know, etc.).
Medium • Slow Action
Describe how you contact dead spirits → You draw forth a dead spirit, who must speak with you. However, it is under no obligation to be helpful. You can draw forth a specific spirit if you are near something that was important to it in life.
Possess • Action
Describe how you possess a corpse or helpless creature that you’re touching → You vanish and take control of the target’s body. You and the possessed can hear each other’s thoughts, you use the possessed creature’s attributes instead of your own (you retain access to this trait), and you take the same damage that the possessed body takes. When the possession ends, you reappear in an adjacent space. The possession ends when it should logically end (you enter hallowed ground, someone performs an exorcism, the willingly leave the host, etc).