Page 287 - Chronicles of Darkness

wracked, you fall over — taking the Knocked Down Tilt — and movement. You’re wracked with hot and cold flushes as a
cannot get up. Your Speed is reduced to 1; if you want to sickness gnaws away at your insides.
move at all, you cannot take any other action. Physical rolls Effect: This Tilt applies a general sickness to a character
that require movement are reduced to a chance die. without worrying about the specific illness. For the purposes
Causing the Tilt: Some supernatural powers can cripple of this Tilt, a sickness is either “moderate” or “grave.” A mod-
a victim’s limbs or break bones with a touch. A character erate sickness, such as a cold, asthma, the flu, or just a bad
can have his leg knocked out by a targeted blow to the leg (-2 hangover, causes a -1 penalty to all actions during combat.
penalty) that deals more damage than the character’s Stamina. That penalty increases by one every two turns (the first two
Ending the Tilt: If the Tilt is inflicted as a result of an turns, the character suffers a -1 penalty, the next two turns the
attack, mark an X under the leftmost Health box affected by penalty is -2, and so on up to a maximum of -5 on turn nine).
that attack. The Tilt ends when that damage that caused it A grave sickness, such as pneumonia, heavy metal poisoning,
has healed. If the damage that inflicts this Tilt is aggravated, or aggressive cancer, inflicts the same dice penalties as a mild
the character loses use of his leg permanently. sickness. In addition, the physical stress of fighting or even
defending oneself from an attacker while gravely ill inflicts
POISONED a point of bashing damage per turn of combat.
Causing the Tilt: It’s not easy to deliberately make some-
one sick. Sure, if you can get your hands on a vial of smallpox
Personal or deliberately use a disease you’ve got to make someone sick
Description: You’ve got poison inside you. It’s tearing (a breaking point, especially in the case of grave diseases like
you apart from the inside, burning like acid in your gut and AIDS), then you’ve got a reasonable chance. Some supernatu-
making your head swim. ral creatures have abilities that can inflict diseases on others.
Effect: This Tilt applies a general sense of being poisoned Aside from that, you’ve just got to expose your opponent
to a character without worrying about Toxicity during combat. to the sickness long before you fight and hope for the best.
For the purposes of this Tilt, a poison is either “moderate” Ending the Tilt: This Tilt reflects the effects of sickness as
or “grave” — a moderate poison causes one point of bashing they specifically applies to combat. The penalties inflicted by
damage per turn of combat, while a grave poison ups that to this Tilt fade at a rate of one point per turn once the character
one point of lethal damage per turn. If the Storyteller cares has a chance to rest, but any damage inflicted remains until
to continue the effects of the poison outside of combat, he the character can heal.
can apply the standard rules for handling poisons and toxins
when combat is complete. STUNNED
Causing the Tilt: It’s possible for a character to not know
that he’s been poisoned. It could be as innocuous as switching
drinks with a pretty girl who is the target of a mob hit, or as Personal
simple as walking into a house with a carbon monoxide leak. Description: Your character is dazed and unable to think
That being said, the main time poison comes up in combat straight. Maybe her vision blurs. If she’s stunned as a result
is when one combatant inflicts it on another. Injecting your of a blow to the head, she’s probably got a concussion.
opponent with a syringe full of drain cleaner or snake venom Effect: A character with the Stunned Tilt loses her next
counts as a Dexterity + Weaponry attack, and suffers a -1 action, and halves her Defense until she can next act.
modifier for the improvised weapon. Causing the Tilt: A character can be stunned by any
Ending the Tilt: Short of immediate medical attention — attack that targets her head and deals at least as much dam-
and how many fights take place in an emergency room? — all age as her Size. Some weapons have a “stun” special ability.
a victim can do is struggle on. Roll Stamina + Resolve as a These double the weapon modifier only for the purposes of
reflexive action each turn that your character is poisoned. If working out whether the attacker inflicts the Stunned Tilt.
your character intends to act (meaning, takes a non-reflexive Attacks against the target’s head (see “Specified Targets,” p.
action), the roll suffers a -3 penalty. Success counteracts the 92) count the character’s Size as one lower for the purposes
damage for one turn only. of this Tilt. The Storyteller might determine that additional
effects cause this Tilt, like being caught in the blast area of
SICK an explosion.
Ending the Tilt: The effects of this Tilt normally only
last for a single turn. The character can end the Tilt during
Personal her own action by reflexively spending a point of Willpower
to gather her wits, though she suffers a -3 modifier to any
Description: Your stomach churns. You retch and heave
but only succeed in bringing up bile. Sweat beads on your actions she takes that turn.
brow as you spike a fever. Your muscles ache with every

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Appendix Two-Tilts