A character faces a stress check when one of their shock meters is threatened. If the character can’t avoid it, they have to defend themselves to find out whether they become more broken or hardened. If this happens too much, they can burn out or go mad.
Facing the Stress Check
A character faces a stress check in situations that directly challenge any one of their Helplessness, Isolation, Self, Unnatural or Violence shock meters.
Stress checks are targeted at one of these psychological shock meters directly, rather than a related ability, identity or relationship.
A variety of narrative triggers are suggested in Book 1: Play (pp20-24). Other specific situations can result in stress checks (noted where possible with expected target meters and stress ranks).
Mundane Stress Checks
- Fear: the character’s fear passion is manifested (check against related shock meter).
- Noble:
- the character chooses not to act on an impluse from their noble passion because the circumstances are too dangerous (Self, Rank 4-6)
- the character deliberately acts contrary to their noble passion (Self, Rank 7-10)
- Coercion: a GM or player character establishes a clear and plausible threat to another character (check against coerced meter, rank determined by coercion formula). (Play, p56)
- Relationships: a relationship rating diminishes to 0% (Isolation, rank 4-5) (Play, p39)
- Combat:
- get shot at random (Violence, Rank 2-4) (Play, p20)
- kill someone in a fight (Violence, Rank 3-5) (Play, p20)
- leave a defensive position or resist finding cover (or hitting the deck in the open) while under suppressive fire (Violence, Rank 2-4) (Play, p66)
- executing someone at point blank range (Violence, Rank 7-8) or watching (Violence, Rank 3-4) (plus possible Self checks) (Play, p67)
- Medicine: when receiving golden hour treatment, the person administering treatment rolls a matched failure (Violence, Rank 2-3) (Play, p74)
- Therapy: when a therapist fumbles while providing immediate assistance or ongoing treatment (Self, Rank 2-3) (Play, p75)
- Madness:
- a trauma bond is triggered (Play, p26);
- the object of a philia/obsession is destroyed (Helplessness, Rank 10) (Play, p27)
- Conflagration: the character is set on fire (Violence, Rank 4-5) (Play, p72)
- Riots: being caught up in a riot (Helplessness and Violence, Rank 4, every hour) (Run, p96)
Unnatural Stress Checks
- Supernatural Identity Effects:
- Vague Information: fumble an attempt to use a supernatural identity with this feature (Helplessness or Violence (GM’s choice), Rank 4) (Play, p45).
- Vague Harm: suffering a critical attack made with this supernatural identity with this feature (Helplessness, Rank 3-4) (Play, p47).
- Specific Harm: suffering from an attack made with this supernatural identity with this feature (Unnatural, Rank 4-5) (Play, p47).
- Influence: be subjected to a fumbled supernatural influence attempt (Unnatural, Rank 4-5) (Play, p48).
- Avatars:
- Artist:
- turn away when thunderstruck before an artwork (Helplesssness, Rank 5) (Expose, p70).
- Fail to acquire an artwork that has been specifically made for you (Isolation, Rank 10) (Expose, p70).
- Captain: when a target refuses to obey an order (Helplessness or Self, Rank 6-7 for crew or Rank 2-3 for non-crew) (Play, p98).
- Collector: resist being summoned by a Collector (Isolation Rank 7-8, or 8-9 on matched Avatar roll, or 10 on critical Avatar roll) (Expose, p72).
- Messenger: refusing to acknowledge a Messenger’s truth (Helplessness or Self, Rank 6) (Play, p107).
- Muse / Patron: fail to work on an ecstatic piece of art (Isolation, Rank 5) or work to some other direction (Self, Rank 7)(Expose p74).
- Naked Goddess: resisting Presumption, the ideal illusion that is reflected when gazing the Naked Goddess (Self, Rank 4) (Play, p110).
- Pilgrim: resist the idea of the one true quest (Self, Rank as tens value of avatar identity rating) (Mine, p83).
- Salesman:
- resist a sale or swap when offered with a Matched or Critical avatar roll (Self or Unnatural, Rank as per coercion) (Mine, p86).
- Forgo payment (Unnatural, Rank as tens value of avatar identity rating) (Mine, p87).
- Star: resisting the performance of a Star (Helplessness, Rank as tens value of Star’s identity rating) (Play, p114).
- Tamer: attempt to injure a high-ranking Tamer (Helplessness, Rank 7-9) (Expose, p79).
- Two-Faced Man:
- fail to tell a crowd what they want to hear (Self, Rank based on ones value of failed avatar identity check roll) (Mine, p88)
- get angry when caught by the enemy (Violence, Rank 3) (Mine, p89).
- Artist:
- Magick Spells: individual traditions have spells with specific triggers, but in general:
- Minor Stress Check spells (Rank 3 on relevant meter) (Play, p133).
- Significant Stress Check spells: be targeted individually (Rank as sum of dice, up to 10) or as part of a group (Rank 3-4) (Play, p137).
- Minor Compulsion spells (Rank 4 on relevant meter) (Play, p133).
- Significant Compulsion spells:
- resisting a compulsion directive (Rank based on spell roll, on relevant meter) (Play, p136)
- having your body taken over (Helplessness, Rank 6-7) (Play, p136)
- Minor Blast: be attacked with Magick (Unnatural, Rank 5)
- Significant Blast: be attacked with serious magick (Violence, Rank 5)
- Wards: the character crosses into an area that they are warded against (Helplessness, Rank 3-4) (Run, p20)
- The Unnatural: encountering creatures, places and phenomena of the Unnatural, as well as rituals , can also trigger variable stress checks
Avoiding the Stress Check
A character can avoid the consequence of a stress check in some situations:
- Hardened: A character automatically avoids a stress check when they have at least as many hardened notches as the stress rank in the shock meter being attacked. (Play, p19.)
- Stressed: A character automatically avoids stress checks while they are in the middle of dealing with a prior stress check they have previously failed (ie, still in flight, fight or frenzy mode).
- Broken: A character who has five failed notches in the meter under attack is already too broken to resist further stresses to it. Assuming their meter is not currently hardened to the rank of the stress, or that they are not already in a stressed state, they are considered to automatically fail it. (Play, p26.)
When they avoid a stress check, no further action is necesssary. They do not have to defend it, and will not mark any more hardened or failed notches as a result.
Defend the Stress Check
If a character cannot avoid a stress check, they need to defend it by rolling against or relevant identity that defends that meter, or falling back on a standard ability.
Identities with the feature Resists Shock to a Meter provide defence against attacks to a specified meter. If a character has one of these identities, it should be used instead of abilities when defending a stress check against the specified meter (Play, p19). This is regardless of whether the identity value is less than the ability they would otherwise defend with.
If the character has no defensive identity, the fallback ability used to defend a stress check depends on the shock meter being attacked:
- Defend Helplessness with Status
- Defend Isolation with Connect
- Defend Self with Notice
- Defend Unnatural with Knowledge
- Defend Violence with Fitness
In these cases, the ability itself must be used. An identity that otherwise subs for the ability won’t apply. The only identities that can defend stress checks are those with a Resists Shock to a Meter feature.
Passing the Stress Check
When a character successfully defends against – or passes – a stress check, they might avoid the consequences of the trigger situation, but they become increasingly jaded.
The character marks a hardened notch to the meter under attack, reflecting an increased immunity to future shocks in that psychological domain.
When a notch is hardened in a meter, the corresponding upbeat ability is diminished by 5% and the corresponding downbeat ability is increased by 5%. This does not affect relationships or identities, which change independently.
When the character accumulates 25 hardened notches across all meters, they are burned out. They cannot bring their passions into play to make re-rolls or flip-flop rolls until they successfully receive therapy to reduce their total hardened notches below 25 again.
Failing the Stress Check
If a character fails to defend a stress check, they mark a failed notch against the shock meter.
The character becomes stressed and must choose an instinctive response to the trigger:
- Panic: a flight response, the character attempts to run away from the source of the threat.
- Paralysis: a freeze response, the character is stricken with indecision or an inability to move away.
- Frenzy: a fight response, the character lashes out at the source of the threat, attacking it directly, without dodging or attempting fancy combat moves.
A stressed character must pursue the chosen response until the source of the threat has been removed. They cannot focus on other actions or triggers. They automatically avoid further stress checks until they are no longer stressed.
When a character reaches five failed notches in a meter, they suffer mental trauma and get a permanent mental disorder that reflects the trigger situation and the character’s obsession and passions (Play, p26).
The character can seek ongoing assistance from a character with an identity with the Therapeutic feature to try to remove failed notches or recover from a mental disorder.