Somehow, you have slipped through the cracks of reality and people around you tend to forget your very presence. Even the numenera seems to react differently to you sometimes. One might think this to be a perfect opportunity for lots of fun and mischief, but you have learned the hard way that being ignored by reality can be a surreal, horrifying experience. You have adapted to the circumstances as best as you can, but deep down you fear the day when nothing and nobody will react to your actions or presence anymore and you fade away like a ghost.
Info: this descriptor was inspired by Neil Gaiman’s novel Neverwhere. The concept of ‘falling through the cracks’ might be a bit much for a descriptor (at least a good one), but I think making an entire focus out of it would degrade the unpleasantness of the experience since it’d need to provide more cool abilities. A descriptor’s inabilites seemed a good way to convey my idea.
You gain the following benefits:
- Thinking:
- +2 to your Intellect Pool.
- Skill:
- You are trained in all perception tasks involving the exchange of information or rumors.
- Skill:
- You are trained in all tasks that involve hiding your presence or disguising your identity.
- Skill:
- You are trained in all Intellect defense tasks.
- Inability:
- The world around you tends to forget that you exist. The difficulty for all social interactions and all tasks involving the numenera and the concept of identy (e.g. key cards, passwords, blood samples, or datasphere access) is increased by one step.
- Additional Equipment:
- You have an extra oddity, determined by the GM, that helps you create a diversion or draw attention to your person if necessary. You also have 10 extra shins.
Initial Link to the Starting Adventure: From the following list of options, choose how you became involved in the first adventure.
- The PCs needed someone to scout ahead or gather information in town, so you joined them.
- You learned a secret about another PC and haven’t decided yet what to do with your knowledge.
- You became trapped in a machine or complex earlier and one PC rescued you by accident when he/she explored the place.
- An expensive artifact might be able to help you become a “full” person again, so you joined the PCs to earn some money.
Originally I though about making the Inability a difficulty increase by two steps, but then I thought that too harsh. Now I’m unsure, since there is definitely a place for descriptors that screw you over a little (or very much, depending on your POV).