Phobia

Mental Merits & Flaws / Derangements

2 point Flaw

You have an overpowering fear of something. Spiders, snakes, crowds and heights are examples of common phobias. You must make a Courage roll every time you encounter the object of your fear. The difficulty of the roll is determined by the Storyteller, and if you fail the roll you must retreat from the object.

---

Derangement

Sometimes the Beast leaves the mark of its passage as an irrational, debilitating fear. Although most Sabbat vampires loathe admitting it, some of them have acquired phobias that relate somehow to their loss of control. Indeed, some Sabbat have collected several of these terrors, symbols of thier struggle with and loss of their lesser, baser selves. A phobia may take any form, from a simple (and fairly mortal) fear of spiders, to fear of a particular elder, to a fear of automobiles, to a crippling fear of other vampires.

The player and Storyteller should work together to determine which phobia bests fit a certain character's circumstances. Any time the character is confronted by the object or person of his phobia, she must make a Rotschreck roll against a difficulty of 6 (or spend a point of Willpower before making the roll) or flee the presence of whatever causes her phobia. Of course, this isn't necessarily in resopnse to fire, as Rotschreck suggests, but it serves to simulate the fear as well. If the character botches this roll or has no escape route, the Storyteller may well increase the difficulty of subsequent rolls regarding the given phobia to 8.