PERKS
Acute Senses - Requirements: None; You have superior senses. You may take this perk multiple times, each time applying it to one of the 5 senses. You gain +2 on all Notice rolls made with the chosen sense.

Alcohol Tolerance - Requirements: None; Your body metabolizes alcohol with remarkable efficiency. You can drink steadily for an indefinite period with no major detrimental effects. Binging affects you as it would anyone else. You get +2 on all Physique rolls related to drinking.

Alias - Requirements: None; You have multiple identities. Each time you purchase this trait, your fingerprints (or other biometrics used to verify your identity are registered under another name, and you have an extra set of identity documents (birth certificate, licenses, passport, etc.) good enough to pass close inspection. These identities may also have valid credit cards and bank accounts, but you must supply the money-additional wealth is not included in the package! If an intelligence or law-enforcement agency attempts to identify you with no clue as to your name-for instance, using biometrics or photo analysis-there is an equal chance for each of your identities to come up. The search will stop... unless they have reason to believe you are a ringer. If the search continues, your other identities will eventually surface, and you will be unmasked. Once a government agency determines who you really are, your Alias's are lost for good.

There are two types of Alias's; Legal: Some spies and undercover cops may have a legal Alias. This requires an official connection to a government/law-enforcement agency. Illegal: A criminal or foreign agent may have an illegal Alias. This has the advantage of being completely unknown when you first start out, and of course it cannot be revoked by the government. On the other hand, should it ever be discovered, you will likely face a jail sentence.

Always Prepared - Requirements: None; You always seem to have just the piece of gear you need. Once per per level, you may pull out one small item of equipment that you could have been carrying. This “Gizmo” remains undefined until you reveal it. It does not even enter play until you take it out; thus, it cannot be damaged, lost, stolen, or found in a search. This item must be small enough to fit in an ordinary coat pocket.

Amphibious Training - Requirements: None; You've received special training in the water. You do not suffer skill penalties while underwater and your underwater movement is never slowed.

Animal Empathy - Requirements: None; You are unusually talented at reading the motivations of animals. You can use any social skill to interact with an animal, getting a sense of it's emotional state--friendly, frightened, hostile, hungry, etc.

Animal Handling - Requirements: Animal Empathy; Because you are so good at reading animals, you know how to act around them to influence their behavior. You may know use any social skill to influence the behavior of an animal.

Attractive - Requirements: None; You might not win a beauty contest, but are definitely good-looking. This gives +2 on social rolls made toward those attracted to members of your sex, +1 from everyone else.

Cast-Iron Stomach - Requirements: Physique +1; You require the standard amount of food and water, but the quality is irrelevant. You can eat rotten vegetables and fuzzy blue-green meat, and drink dishwater and sour milk. You get a +4 bonus to resist the effects of food-borne poisons or diseases not tailored expressly for you, but -4 on Social rolls from anyone watching you eat!

Catfall - Requirements: Athletics +3; You can fall from a significant height (approximately three stories or 40 feet) without sustaining a Significant Injury.

Chameleon - Requirements: None; You are skilled at making yourself unseen. You gain +2 on all Stealth rolls to remain undetected.

Charisma - Requirements: None; You have a natural ability to impress and lead others. Anyone can acquire a semblance of charisma through looks, manners, and intelligence-but real charisma is independent of these things. Once per scene you may make 2 rolls using one of your social skills, and use the better result.

Combat Reflexes - Requirements: None; You have extraordinary reactions, and are rarely surprised for more than a moment. You get +1 to any roll made to defend yourself and +2 Fight when defending against a physical attack. You never freeze in a surprise situation and you get +4 to notice rolls to wake up, or to recover from surprise.

Common Sense - Requirements: None; Any time you start to do something the GM feels is STUPID, he will roll against your Knowledge. A successful roll means he must warn you: “Hadn’t you better think about that?” This perk lets an impulsive player take the part of a thoughtful character.

Contacts - Requirements: None; You have an associate who provides you with useful information, or who does small (ie quick, nonhazardous, and inexpensive) favors for you. First, work with the GM to decide on the type of Contact you have. They might be anything from a wino in the right gutter to a head of state, depending on your background. What is important is that they have access to information, knows you, and is likely to react favorably. (Of course, offering cash or favors is never a bad idea; the GM will set the Contact’s “price.”) Next, choose the useful expertise your Contact provides. This expertise must match the Contact’s background; e.g., Finance for a banker or Forensics for a lab technician. If you want ballistics comparisons, take a Contact with Forensics, not Finance!

Courtesy Rank - Requirements: Current or past levels in Rank; Those who have formerly held Rank may retain that Rank as “Courtesy Rank.” Those who currently hold a title that carries little real authority may also take Courtesy Rank. Courtesy Rank is for social situations only; it gives you a fancier title.

Cultural Adaptability - Requirements: Story Justification (such as being from or spending time in a particular region); You are familiar with a particular culture. When dealing with members of that culture, you never suffer penalties for being an outsider and you speak the dominant language of that culture. You may take this perk multiple times, applying it to a different culture each time.

Damage Resistance - Requirements: None; You are particularly tough or have an incredible ability to "walk it off". If you would take a Minor Injury, you may instead choose to ignore said injury for a number of scenes equal to your Will modifier. After that many scenes the Minor Injury is automatically upgraded to a Significant Injury.

Danger Sense - Requirements: None; You can’t depend on it, but sometimes you get this prickly feeling right at the back of your neck, and you know something’s wrong... If you have Danger Sense, the GM rolls once for your Notice, secretly, in any situation involving an ambush, impending disaster, or similar hazard. On a success, you get enough of a warning that you can take action.

Daredevil - Requirements: None; Fortune seems to smile on you when you take risks! Any time you take an unnecessary risk (in the GM’s opinion), you get a +1 to all skill rolls. Furthermore, you may reroll any critical failure (2 or more 1's on any 3d6 roll) that occurs during such high-risk behavior.

Diplomatic Pouch - Requirements: Legal Immunity; You possess access to a diplomatic pouch that allows you to send or receive mail or small objects that the ordinary authorities cannot legally stop or examine.

Discriminatory Hearing - Requirements: None; You have been trained to distinguish between sounds. You can always identify people by voice and recognize individual machines by their "signature sound", assuming you have heard them before. You gain +4 (in addition to any bonus to hearing granted by Acute Senses) on any roll that utilizes hearing and receive +4 bonus to any Survival roll to follow a noisy target.

Double-Jointed - Requirements: Flexibility; You cannot stretch or squeeze yourself abnormally, but any part of your body may bend any way. You gain +4 to any roll to fit into or through small places as well as to any roll to escape personal confinement (ie being grappled or handcuffed/tied up).

Double Tap - Requirements: Shoot +1; Through hours at the shooting range you have learned to instinctively pull the trigger twice while shooting. Once per scene you may make two consecutive Shoot rolls against a single target.

Eidetic Memory - Requirements: Knowledge +3; You have an exceptionally good memory. You automatically remember the general sense of everything you concentrate on, and can recall specific details by making a knowledge roll.

Experienced Climber - Requirements: None; You are an experienced climber and gain +2 Athletics when climbing.

Extra Attack - Requirements: None; You've been trained to strike hard and fast. Once per scene you may make two consecutive Fight rolls against a single target.

Fashion Sense - Requirements: None; Your look is always one step ahead of the crowd. You have the ability to create a fashion statement out of the cheapest and most nondescript materials. This gives +1 to rolls in social situations when you have a chance to plan your attire in advance. You can also give someone else a +1 bonus when you put together the outfit.

Favor - Requirements: None; You saved someone’s life, kept silent at the right time, or otherwise did someone a good turn. Now they owe you one. A Favor is a one-shot Contact, the difference is that this contact will perform a longer, hazerdous, and/or expensive favor; but they will only do so ONCE. You may take this perk multiple times, each time represents a favor from a different person. At any time, you may have a number of favors no greator that your Contacts modifier. Unlike most perks, the GM may reward Favors in-game. These rewards do not count toward your maximum.

Fearless - Requirements: None; You are difficult to frighten or intimidate and gain +2 Will when defending against attempts to influence you through fear.

First Aid - Requirements: Medicine +1; You are adept at patching yourself up from a fight. Once per level you may heal a Minor Injury or downgrade one of your Significant Injuries to a Minor Injury. You may not effect Fatal Injuries on yourself, as you would be in shock, and likely unconcious, by that point.

Flexibility - Requirements: None; Your body is unusually flexible. You gain +2 to any roll to fit into or through small places as well as to any roll to escape personal confinement (ie being grappled or handcuffed/tied up).

Focused Listening - Requirements: Notice +1; You can "focus in" on a particular sound or area, and can mentally filter out background noise from sounds of interest to you. You double the distance at which you can clearly hear any given sound.

Foreign Language - Requirements: None; You take the time to learn a new language. When you take this perk you invest the time and effort into learning a new language up to a conversational level. When speaking a language other than your Native tongue, roll Knowledge. On a result of 10+ you are understood and understand the conversation perfectly. You may take this perk multiple times, each time it applies to a different language.

Gadgeteer - Requirements: Craft +2; You are a natural inventor. You can modify existing equipment and-given sufficient time and money-invent entirely new gadgets.

Gunslinger - Requirements: Shoot +3; You can make uncannily precise shots without aiming. When firing single shots from a one-handed weapon, you get the Accuracy bonus of your weapon without the need to take time to Aim. When using a two-handed weapon or automatic fire, you get half the Accuracy bonus (round up) without the need to Aim.

Hard to Kill - Requirements: Physique +2; You can take more injuries that a normal person. You may take this perk a number of time equal to your Physique modifier, each time you do, you gain an additional Minor Injury slot. In addition, once per level you may downgrade a Significant Injury to a Minor Injury.

Hard to Subdue - Requirements: Will +1; You are hard to knock out. Whenever and attack would render you unconscious (ie Knock out gas, being "choked out", etc) you may make two Will rolls and take the better result.

High Manual Dexterity - Requirements: None; You have remarkably fine motor
skills. You may take this perk multiple times, each time you do add +1 to all rolls in regard to tasks that require a delicate touch (ie bypassing an alarm, disarming an explosive, picking a lock, etc).

High Pain Tolerance - Requirements: Damage Resistance; You are as susceptible to injury as anyone else, but you don’t feel it as much. If you would take a Minor Injury, you may instead choose to ignore said injury for a number of hours equal to a Will roll. After that many scenes the Minor Injury is automatically upgraded to a Significant Injury. In addition, if you are physically tortured, you gain +4 to all rolls to resist your interrogator.

Honest Face - Requirements: None; You simply look honest, reliable, or generally harmless. This has nothing to do with your reputation among those who know you, or how virtuous you really are! People who don’t know you will tend to pick you as the one to confide in, or not to pick you if they are looking for a potential criminal or troublemaker. You won’t be spot checked by customs agents and the like unless they have another reason to suspect you, or unless they are truly choosing at random. You have a +1 to social skills for the sole purpose of “acting innocent.”

Independent Income - Requirement: Story justification; You have a source of income that does not require you to work: stock portfolio, trust fund, rental property, royalties, pension, etc. When using your own wealth, gain +4 to all resource rolls. These rolls are restricted to legally acquired good only!

Indomitable - Requirements: Will +4; You are impossible to influence through ordinary words or actions. Those who wish to use Social skills to influence you must possess a suitable Perk, otherwise their attempt automatically fails.

Insomniac - Requirements: Less Sleep; If you would suffer a penalty due to lack of sleep, you may instead choose to "push through' with a successful Will roll. If successful you may act normally for a number of hours equal to the result of your Will roll. At the end of this time, you take a Minor Injury associated with your lack of sleep.

Internal Clock - Requirements: None; You always know what time it is and can measure elapsed time with accuracy. Changing time zones does not interfere with this ability. However, sleep deprivation and being held for long periods with no reference (a clock or the sky) requires a Will test. You can wake up at a time of your choice without an alarm. Being knocked unconscious, hypnotized, etc may prevent this perk from working.

Intuition - Requirements: Insight +2; You usually guess right. When faced with a number of alternatives, and no logical way to choose among them, you can ask the GM to let you use your Intuition. The GM makes a secret Insight roll, with a bonus equal to the number of “good” choices and a penalty equal to the number of “bad” choices. On a success, he steers you to a good choice; on a critical success (double 6's on a 3d6 roll), he tells you the best choice. On a failure, he gives you no information; on a critical failure, he steers you toward a bad choice. The GM can modify this as he sees fit for other situations where Intuition might logically help. Only one roll per question is allowed.

Intuitive Mathematician - Requirements: None; You are a mathematical savant. You can solve complex mathematical equations, navigate, perform engineering design, and solve differential equations in your head in mere minutes.

Jerry-Rig - Requirements: Gadgeteer; You can make quick, slapdash repairs or modifications in minutes or hours, and can get by with scrounged-together spare parts. You make such rolls at Crafts +2 and these repairs allow the object to perform normally for a number of hours equal to your Craft roll. After which the item breaks and is unrepairable without investing significant time and money.

Linguist - Requirements: Foreign Language, Knowledge +2; You have a knack for learning new languages. Whenever you take time to learn a new language you learn to speak it on the level of a native speaker (but cannot reproduce the accent) and you never risk being misunderstood/misunderstanding due to linguistic barriers. You may take this perk multiple times, each time it applies to a different language.

Law-Enforcement Powers - Requirements: Membership to a government or law-enforcement organization; You are a law enforcer, with the accompanying powers and restrictions. This perk consists of three jurisdiction levels; Local, National, and International (described below).

Local: Local Police forces (ie NYPD, Scotland Yard, State-Police, etc) possess the power to arrest suspected criminals, perform searches with an appropriate warrant, and usually the right to carry a concealed weapon.

National: National law-enforcement agencies (FBI, MI5, Russian FSB, Japan's National Police Agency, etc.) have all of the power of Local law-enforcement with the following additions: Access to nation-wide criminal databases, may pursue anywhere within their home country, cooperation and joint operation with neighboring national law-enforcement agencies.

International: International law-enforcement agencies (Official CIA officers, Interpol, The World Court (specific to War-crimes), etc.) have all of the power of Local and National law-enforcement with the following additions: They are not obligated to respect the civil rights of others, or are free to engage in covert investigations, perform searches without a warrant, or may kill with relative impunity

Legal Enforcement Powers almost always require an appropriate Rank. Covert operatives do not possess a jurisdiction of any kind. If discovered operating in a foreign country they have no protections from local law-enforcement and will be treated as criminals.

Legal Immunity - Requirements: High level membership to a government or law-enforcement organization; You are exempt from some or all of the laws of a country. This is commonly refered to as "Diplomatic Immunity." Should you break the law, ordinary law enforcers do not have the power to charge you. Only one particular authority-your own country or a special court, can judge or punish you. This trait always comes with a Duty to a government agency, and often has some level of administrative Rank.

Less Sleep - Requirements: None; You need less sleep than most people. A normal person requires 8 hours of sleep per night. Each level of this perk-to a maximum of four levels-lets you get by with one hour less than this, giving you a few extra hours each day in which to study or work on other projects.

Luck - Requirements: None; Once per level, you may reroll a single bad die roll twice and take the best of the three rolls! You must declare that you are using your Luck immediately after you roll the dice. Once you or anyone else has made another die roll, it is too late to use Luck. If the GM is rolling in secret (e.g., to see if you notice something), you may tell him you are using your Luck ahead of time, and he must roll three times and give you the best result. Your luck is non-transferrable and unused luck does not roll over to the next level.

Luck, Extraordinary - Requirements: Luck; Twice per level, you may reroll a single bad die roll twice and take the best of the three rolls! You must declare that you are using your Luck immediately after you roll the dice. Once you or anyone else has made another die roll, it is too late to use Luck. If the GM is rolling in secret (e.g., to see if you notice something), you may tell him you are using your Luck ahead of time, and he must roll three times and give you the best result. Your luck is non-transferrable and unused luck does not roll over to the next level.

Luck, Ridiculous - Requirements: Extraordinary Luck; Four times per level, you may reroll a single bad die roll twice and take the best of the three rolls! You must declare that you are using your Luck immediately after you roll the dice. Once you or anyone else has made another die roll, it is too late to use Luck. If the GM is rolling in secret (e.g., to see if you notice something), you may tell him you are using your Luck ahead of time, and he must roll three times and give you the best result. Your luck is non-transferrable and unused luck does not roll over to the next level.

Medic - Requirements: First Aid; You have the ability to provide medical care to others. You must be in physical contact with the subject. Make a Medicine roll. One a result of 10+ you may remove a Minor Injury, downgrade a Significant Injury to a Minor Injury, or downgrade a Fatal Injury to a Significant Injury.

Metabolic Control - Requirements: Physique or Will +2; Through training and years of practice you have learned how to lower your heartbeat and respiration. You can use this to control Blood flow; If you have a Minor Injury that involves bleeding, you may ignore it. If you have a Significant or Fatal Injury that involves bleeding, you may downgrade it. You may do this for a number of minutes equal to your Will roll, after which the injury returns to it's original state. You may hold your breath for a number of minutes equal to your Physique without the need to make rolls versus drowning. You can also use this ability to enter a deep trance, appearing to be dead, for a number of minutes equal to your Will modifier. Anyone unfamiliar with your abilities must make a Medicine roll versus you Deceive roll to to discover that you aren’t dead.

Mimicry - Requirements: Deceive +1; You can imitate voices by spending at least 10 seconds listening to them-live, recorded, or remotely-and making a Deceive roll. This trait gives you no special ability to speak the target's language, if you do not already know how to speak it.

Night Vision - Requirements: None; Your eyes adapt rapidly to darkness. Each level of this perk (maximum nine levels) allows you to ignore -1 in combat or vision penalties due to darkness. Regardless of level, Night Vision only works in partial darkness.

Pathfinder - Requirements: None; You have an excellent sense of direction. As long as you can see the sky, you always know which way is North. You gain +2 to Survival to track or find your way in the Wilderness.

Perfect Balance - Requirements: None; You can always keep your footing, no matter how narrow the walking surface, under normal conditions. This lets you walk along a tightrope, ledge, tree limb, or other anchored surface without having to make a die roll. If the surface is wet, slippery, or unstable, you get +4 on all rolls to keep your feet. In combat, you get +2 to defensive skill rolls to keep your feet or avoid being knocked down. Finally, you get +1 to Acrobatics, and Drive skill when Piloting.

Peripheral Vision - Requirements: Notice +1; You have an unusually wide field of
vision. You can see a 180° arc in front of you without turning your head, and have 30° of peripheral vision to either side of that. This gives you a 240° “arc of vision” for observation and ranged attacks. you get +2 to all rolls to detect Stealth attempts or ambushes from behind, and the GM will always make a Notice roll for you to spot dangers “behind your back.”

Photographic Memory - Requirements: Eidetic Memory; This perk functions the same as Eidetic Memory, but you automatically recall specific details, too. Any time you, the player forget a detail your character has seen or heard, the GM or other players must remind you-truthfully!

Rank - Requirements: Varies (See below); Specific sectors of society-e.g., the civil service, the military, and certain powerful religions-often have internal ranking systems, distinct from Status. Rank comes in levels. Each Rank has authority over those of lower Rank-regardless of personal ability. In most cases, there are six to eight levels of Rank. Unlike Status, Rank costs no money to maintain. On the other hand, almost all forms of Rank come with a responsibilities. Rank often has stringent prerequisites, too or a minimum skill level.

Rank may coexist with Status. If so, then high Rank grants additional Status at no extra cost: +1 to Status at Rank 2-4, +2 to Status at Rank 5-7, and +3 to Status at Rank 8 or higher. This represents society’s respect for senior members of important social institutions. If you hold multiple types of Rank, then you may claim a Status bonus for each of them. Common varieties of Rank include:

Administrative Rank: Position within a governmental bureaucracy. When
dealing with other administrators, differences in Rank work just like differences in Status. A large bureaucracy might have several varieties of Rank: one per government department, and possibly extra categories for the senate, judiciary, etc. (Defense or law-enforcement officials use Military or Police Rank instead.) Note this on your character sheet; e.g., Administrative Rank (Judiciary).

Military Rank: Position within a military organization. Each organization is structured differently. In general, personnel that are not specifically leaders will be Rank 0-2, while low level officers and senior enlisted men will be Rank 3-4. Rank 5 and higher is normally limited to major commands and duties where the officer is responsible for extremely valuable or rare resources. Limited-duty officers, specialists, and personnel with little actual responsibility or command authority have a lower Rank in game terms, despite possibly possessing titles identical to those of a higher Rank; represent this with one or more levels of Courtesy Rank.

Police Rank: Position in a police force. Each agency has its own variety of Rank. You must buy Legal Enforcement Powers before you can buy Police Rank; this is the difference between a patrol officer (Police Rank 0) and an ordinary citizen. Note that in a police state, there is no difference between Police Rank and Military Rank.

Reduced Consumption - Requirements: Physique +2; You can go for a long time without food and water - although you still require these things. Each level of this perk (maximum of four) allows you to go one additional day (to a maximum of 6 days) without food and water.

Safe House - Requirements: Group affiliation; You belong to an organization (CIA, Terrorist cell, gang, etc.) that encourages it's members to assist one another. When you are away from home, you may call on other members of this group for food, shelter, and basic aid. With a successful Rapport roll you may also receive advice, introductions, and a small loan. This cuts both ways however, you may be called upon to provide (reasonable) assistance to another member of the same group at any time. Failure to provide such aid may result in you getting a bad reputation and eventually losing access to this perk.

Security Clearance - Requirements: Membership to a government or law-enforcement organization; A government agency or corporation trusts you with access to sensitive information that would otherwise be “off limits” to someone of your Rank or Status. You may take this perk multiple times, up to a maximum of ten, each time gaining a "Level X Security Clearance." The exact information that falls under a level of clearance will be determined by the GM. Ranks often grant a certain minimum Security Clearance level.

Sensitive - Requirements: Insight +2; You have a “feeling” for people. When you first meet someone-or are reunited after an absence-you may ask the GM to roll against your Insight. He will tell you what you “feel” about that person. On a failed roll, he will lie! This talent is excellent for spotting impostors and for determining the true loyalties of NPCs. You can also use it to determine whether someone is lying... not what the truth is, but just whether they are being truthful with you.

Sensitive Touch - Requirements: None; Your fingertips are extremely sensitive, allowing you to sense residual heat in a chair, faint vibrations in the floor as someone approaches, etc. You get +4 (in addition to any Acute Sense (Touch) bonuses) on any task that utilizes the sense of touch; e.g., an Investigate roll to note the similarities or differences between two pieces of fabric, or a Notice roll to feel out tiny concealed objects.

Serendipity - Requirements: Luck; You have the knack of being in the right place at the right time. Each level of this trait entitles you to one fortuitous but plausible coincidence per level. The details are up to the GM. For instance, the GM might declare that one of the guards you need to talk your way past just fell ill and stepped away from his post, or that there is a sports car idling in front of the bank just as you run outside in pursuit of the fleeing bank robbers. You are free to suggest serendipitous occurrences to the GM, but he gets the final say.

Silence - Requirements: None; You can move and breathe noiselessly. You get +2 to Stealth rolls when you are perfectly motionless, or +1 if moving. These bonuses help only in the dark, or against listening devices, blind creatures, and others who must rely on hearing to find you.

Single-Minded - Requirements: Will +2; You can really concentrate! You get +4 to rolls for any lengthy mental task you concentrate on to the exclusion of other activities, if the GM feels such focus would be beneficial. You tend to ignore everything else while obsessed (roll vs. Will to avoid this), and have -6 to all rolls to notice interruptions. The GM may rule that certain complex tasks (e.g., inventing and social activities) require you to divide your attention. This trait has no effect in such situations.

Social Chameleon - Requirements: Rapport +2; You have the knack of knowing exactly what to say-and when to say it-around your social “betters.” You are exempt from social penalties due to differences in Rank or Status. In situations where there would be no such penalty, you get +1 on reactions from those who demand respect. This is a cinematic advantage!

Status - Requirements: None; Status is a measure of social standing. Status levels range from -2 (street person) to 8 (World Leaders), with the average person being Status 0. If you do not specifically buy Status, you have Status 0. Status also costs money to maintain (ie people of certain status are expected to drive certain cars, wear certain clothes, attend certain events, etc.). Status can sometimes influence others’ reactions, but its main effect is to spell out where you stand in the social pecking order. In short, Status represents power. Status only affects rolls if it is obvious to those around you. In some settings, your bearing, dress, and speech communicate your Status. Indeed, if you have very high Status, your face may be easily recognized-or perhaps the gaggle of personal assistants that surrounds you gets the message across.

High Status: Status greater than 0 means you are a member of the ruling class in your culture. Your family may be hereditary nobles (e.g., Plantagenet, Windsor), successful businessmen or politicians (Rockefeller, Kennedy), or some other type of big shots. You may even have achieved Status by your own efforts. As a result, others in your culture only defer to you, giving you a bonus on all social rolls equal to your level of Status. High Status carries various privileges. Note that any high-Status person is a likely target for kidnappers and social climbers, and that some criminal types hate “the ruling class.”

Low Status: Status less than 0 means you are very poor. This is not the same thing as Social Stigma. A criminal could theoretically have any level of Status in conjunction with the Social Stigma of a criminal record. The interaction of Status and Social Stigma can give interesting results. For instance, a person who is obviously from a lower social class, or even a disdained minority group, might earn such a reputation as a hero that others react well to him.

Striker - Requirements: Close-Combat, Fight +3; Through training and years of experiance you know exactly where to hit someone to cause them serious injury. If your attack roll succeeds, you may upgrade one of the target's Minor Injuries to a Significant Injury or one of the target's Significant Injuries to a Fatal Injury. You may do this a number of times per level equal to your Fight.

Talented - Requirements: None; You have a natural aptitude for a set of closely related skills. You may add +1 to three skills of your choice.

Temperature Tolerance - Requirements: None; Either through training or experience, you are well equipped to handle temperature extremes. Taking this perk allows you to handle temperatures up to twenty degrees below freezing or twenty degrees above "room temp" without difficulty. Temperature extremes of more than twenty degrees require specialized equipment to handle comfortably for any real length of time.

Temporary Rank - Requirements: At least 1 level of Rank; Those of higher Rank may temporarily increase your Rank for a predetermined amount of time-until the end of a project, battle, etc. This process is called brevetting in the case of Military Rank.

Tenure - Requirements: Story justification; You have a job from which you cannot normally be fired. You can only lose your job (and this perk) as the result of extraordinary misbehavior: assault, gross incompetency, etc. Otherwise, your employment and salary are guaranteed for life. This is most common among university professors, but also applies to judges, priests, senators, etc.

Versatile - Requirements: Craft +2; You are extremely imaginative. You get a +2 bonus on any task that requires creativity or invention, including most Craft rolls.

Voice - Requirements: None; You have a naturally clear, resonant, and attractive voice. This gives you +1 with the following skills: Deceive, Provoke, and Rapport.

Weapons Master - Requirements: Fight +2; You have a high degree of training
or unnerving talent with a particular weapon. Choose a weapon. You gain +2 to all attack and defensive attempts made with that weapon. You may take this perk multiple times, applying it to a different weapon each time.

Zeroed - Requirements: Story permission; You do not officially exist. You don’t appear in the public records, databases contain no evidence of your existence. You must provide a reason for this; e.g., your parents hid you away at birth, you are legally dead, or you somehow managed to destroy all the records (explain how!). To maintain this status, you must deal strictly in cash or commodities. Credit and bank accounts must be blind (keyed to pass-code, not a person-the “Swiss bank account”) or set up through an Alias (see above). If the authorities investigate you, they will initially assume that there has been an error. They will become increasingly concerned as no information can be found about your life. Eventually, they will attempt to apprehend you. If they can’t find you, then they’re likely to give up. But if they catch you, you are in for a thorough interrogation, possibly involving torture or worse. After all, a nonperson has no rights... and it will be very difficult for your allies to prove that you are being held, as you don’t officially exist!