In your tome, you find a self-reporting survey that Library visitors are encouraged to carry out. It contains questions on some personality traits, prior capabilities and overall alignment. At the edges of each page is a dotted line where you may rip the page out to return to the Serpent if you wish to contribute to their data collection.
Quirks are additional attributes that help guide your character's roleplaying style. While they sometimes provide mechanical boosts or handicaps, they are mostly used to personalise gameplay and let the GMs know what kind of story you'd like to experience.
You can take a maximum of seven Quirks that must sum to +1, 0, -1 or -2.
Quirk Cost | Meaning |
---|---|
+ OR - | You can take these Quirks as either a positive or a negative. Please indicate which when taking these Quirks and give a short description of why this Quirk is + or - for your character. |
+ AND - | This is both a + and - Quirk, and takes up 2 Quirk spaces in total. In game, this Quirk will present both advantages and pitfalls. |
0 | These do not count towards your Quirk total. If you took all these Quirks, you can still take 7 on top of that. |
These Quirks alter, add or take away game mechanics from your character.
Once per game, you may swap your Quality. This requires a Minor Action, preferably with a roleplaying reason as to why you'd like to change your Quality, and one full Downtime to take effect.
During this process you have two choices: EITHER refund all your existing Skills into Skill Points (including General Skills) to spend on Skills in your new Quality, OR keep all your existing Skills, but any new Skill Points you obtain from the week this Quirk takes effect must be spent in Skills allowed by your new Quality.
In both cases, you can no longer take Skills in your old Quality. In either case, you can take Skills from General as normal.
You can swap one Skill from your own Quality with a Skill from another Quality. You cannot put Skill Points into the Skill that is swapped out. This is chosen at character creation and cannot be changed in game.
Start the game with 2 additional Skill points. Incompatible with Average Jo (-).
Great sacrifice brings great rewards. If you are willing to suffer a major Injury, your high risk plans are more likely to succeed.
Start the game with 2 less Skill points. Incompatible with Skilled (+).
You can only take Skills from your own Quality and may not take any General Skills.
These Quirks help guide how to roleplay your character. They may also induce roleplaying effects or help form/break relationships with others.
Once per game, you can perform a tremendous defensive act that transcends your Skill Level. This will inspire PCs and NPCs and have an impact on their immediate actions.
You are more likely to be successful when facing a challenge with a time limit, and ONLY when you are very close to the end of that time limit. Otherwise, there's always tomorrow, right?
For some reason, one of the Guardians has really taken to your company. This manifests in you always being the first person to call when there's laundry to pick up, papers to sort or an unimportant message to deliver. But hey, at least you're getting paid in experience, right?
You always have the need to help others at your own expense. If you are helping somebody in a task, you are more likely to sacrifice something yourself, or get hurt, but the task is more likely to be completed successfully.
Your style of dress tends towards the eccentric. Does it attract the right (+) or wrong (-) kind of attention?
You yield to no master. This makes you more inclined to break Library rules and explicitly not do what is asked of you.
Whether it's because you were a librarian before you came here, or because you can't stand hearing the sound of crisps crunching in the background, you just can't help but enforce some basic library rules. Books must be put back (organised by author), volume must be kept to a minimum and absolutely no eating or drinking in the library! This Quirk makes it more difficult for you to outright break Library rules.
Depending on the severity of your rule breach, you may face adverse consequences.
You just can't keep a hold of things. When holding something timeless, valuable or fragile, you are more likely to drop it. While performing feats of athleticism you are also more likely to fall flat on your face. Did you forget to tie your shoelaces again?
You find it harder to get people's attention and convey information to large crowds.
You have a voice that carries, and the Library staff are constantly telling you to keep it down. Your whispers are more likely to be overheard.
Quirks that allow the player to specify something about them, bringing a unique aspect into your gameplay.
You have trained a small animal to deliver messages from you to other players, provided you have seen them before. You may describe a small animal messenger and you can send personal messages to other players in Uptime. While this ability has no limit on the number of times you can use it, the message may take some time to arrive and the animal may be in danger if it traverses difficult terrain.
You have travelled to the Library with one item from your old life. It is no bigger than a shoebox and must be inanimate. What is it? Why is it useful? Please let us know at game start. This item does not count against your maximum carrying capacity between Library Incarnations.
You have a prosthetic body part. Its main function must be the same as the original body part. It can be internal or external. When you take this Quirk, please define what makes this prosthetic better or worse than your original body part.
You have a prior relationship (either a good one or a bad one) with a PC or NPC of your choice. If you choose an NPC, you may make one up (which GMs will play throughout the game), or give us an idea of what you want, and we will create or assign one to you. If you choose a PC, both players must agree to have had a prior relationship and both must take this Quirk. You will both have different Personal Libraries but will come from the same time period.
Define an area of interest that you are very knowledgeable in. As a result, you are less knowledgeable in topics very different from this one.
You are more superstitious than the average person, and these superstitions often make you slower or less able to perform certain tasks well. Pick one thing your character is superstitious about (examples include walking under ladders, the dark or ghosts). If you fail to protect yourself from said superstition (i.e. you carelessly walk on top of a grave), you may face adverse consequences.
You have a dust allergy, in a library? Oh dear…
You may define your own allergy for this Quirk, which can be anything that exists in the real world. Please also tell us what happens to your character when their allergy is triggered.
These Quirks allow you to access information others may not have at game start.
You've always been known to cite your sources. Every week we will give you a snapshot of the full table of contents for the One Last Fire wiki. This may be useful in solving puzzles or understanding the outcomes of certain player led decisions throughout the game.
You have a sense that you've done all this before…
This will manifest as a flashback at some point in the game, where you feel like you have been someplace before, and thus know how it all goes. You may not control when you have this flashback per se, but it will happen at a point of great stress or intense gameplay.
When you find a hidden room or space within a Library, you are able to locate that space again in a separate Library Incarnation and can get to it easily.
When the flames clear, you get a glimpse of what's on the other side, and just as you reach out to grab it, you wake up.
Receive the rough style and terrain of future Library Incarnations at a meaningful time before the rest of the playerbase.
Once per session, through deliberate wandering or just by getting lost, you will end up in a random place in the Library.
These Quirks do not count towards the total number of Quirks you can take. They simply let us (the GMs) know what you are comfortable with roleplaying. It also allows you to adjust the intensity of your game. There is no obligation to take any of these, and you may change which Playstyle Quirks you have at any point by letting a GM know.
It is more difficult for you to succeed in tasks (though failing can be fun and provide more plot) and if you fail terribly, the consequences can be dire.
You are happy to engage in an emotionally heavy game. Full of existential questions, fleeting friendships and the inevitability of a fire consuming all you hold dear.
Take this if you are happy to potentially engage in romantic plot lines with NPCs. Taking this does not mean NPCs will automatically flirt with you, but indicates you would be open to it, if it were narratively appropriate. Not taking this Quirk will still allow you to engage in romance with other PCs, provided both parties agree to it out of character.
Take this if you are happy for there to be the possibility that your character might experience mind control or any temporary loss of agency. All loss of agency will comply with our Conduct and Themes Policy regulations.
Interested in ultimate power? Authority? The world at your fingertips? Take this Quirk if you'd like more heavy and high-stakes plot that takes longer to pay off.
As a wise person once said to me: the height of a Society Game is when there is a revolution going on and you're turnsheeting to go on a date. Take this Quirk if you'd like lighter, more low-stakes plot. Something fun and easy to engage in.