Sadism
From Harath Rules
| Cost: | -5 CP/level |
| Description: | You enjoy inflicting physical pain. Whenever someone is under your control, you will actively try to hurt them, eventually to the point of death. If no one is under your control, you must find someone to hurt. The high you receive from giving pain does for you what sexual release does for others. |
| Gameplay: | To avoid giving in to the desire to inflict pain (or once you have started, to stop) you must make a Will roll (TN=4). Every level of Sadism adds 1 penalty die to Reaction rolls if the other person knows your trait. If they do not, but later discover it, they suffer an immediate 2-level penalty to their current chemistry level toward you. |
Common situational modifiers that can add or subtract levels to overcome your Sadism:
- Amount of time since last Sadism Will failure
- Conflicting requirements
- Potential for being discovered
Vallana has Sadism=2 and Will=5. She is currently alone and has nothing to do for several hours. It's been a while sine she has indulged her need, so all things considered, the GM assigns a 3-level penalty to her Sadism (now=5). She rolls 8 dice (5 for Will + 3 for situational modifiers) and although she rolls very well, her 5 Ss do not exceed her current Sadism level, so she heads out into the street to start looking for a likely target with which to indulge herself.
Vallana spends several hours torturing a street urchin who fell for her promise of a short-term job outside town. When she realizes she's getting tired, Vallana makes a Will roll to voluntarily stop. Because she has no place else to be, the GM assigns no bonus or penalty levels to her Sadism, so she rolls 5 dice (for Will) and gets 3 Ss. That's just enough to let her voluntarily stop. She takes a deep breath, smiles, and almost tenderly slips her stiletto between the urchin's ribs. Even before he has breathed his last, Vallana has already left the abandoned barn and started the trek back to town.