Quirks and Flaws

Unless marked * each Quirk can only be taken once

By default UNITED characters (irrespective of their division) have an effective rank of Lieutenant. This entitles them to permanent command of a small team, allows them to order around the enlisted men, and grants them freedom to utilise the ITP Gate.

By taking this as a positive Quirk you can increase your official rank within UNITED. As a result you can more easily call up extra personnel and quickly source replacements if something unfortunate happens to your teammates.

If you take this as a Flaw then you are without an operational officer's rank. This has a couple of major drawbacks- firstly you don't have any personnel under your command, secondly you don't have personal discretion to use the ITP Gate; if you want to get off-world you'll need to be invited along on someone else's mission.

GM Note: We haven't specified the lower or higher ranks you can take. Although your increased rank might be Major, or Colonel, or Head of Cybernetics etc., it is effectively at the same level as anyone else who has a higher level than Lieutenant at game start. Because of the divisions of operational responsibilities in UNITED, those with a higher-ranked command, whether military or civilian are expected to operate on a semi-independent level and are ultimately responsible for what they do only to their department heads.

UNITED doesn't have any talentless personnel but it has its fair share of oddballs and troublemakers, and sadly it seems that your team contains a disproportionate number of them. As leader of the group you'll be expected to get your team sorted out, and have responsibility for their mistakes.

Your team is especially gifted, not a red shirt amongst them. Your people are far more likely to be injured than killed when things go bad and are more capable of holding their own in an emergency than the average UNITED team.

A member of your group has a particularly unusual talent and will be of great assistance whenever their discipline is relevant to your plan.

You have somehow won the friendship of someone in a position to supply you with provisions. You will have a considerably easier time laying your hands on whatever goods they are responsible for.

Fairly or not you have a reputation for getting your people killed. As a result your team are more likely to act against orders when it seems you may be putting them in harm's way.

You've been able to make a personal contribution to the UNITED project. Perhaps your company has sunk a vast chunk of money into the initiative, or perhaps the organisation is dependent on a technological breakthrough that you developed. In any case your voice carries more weight in UNITED than most, and you are likely to already be on good terms with the Department's bigwigs.

You're only in UNITED because one of the project's corporate sponsors insisted. You're likely to face some social backlash from those who don't think you have a right to be here, and the company who sent you may provide some 'suggestions' from time to time.

You have been issued with (or built yourself) an unusual piece of tech.

This could be an experimental jetpack, a handheld railgun or some flavour of cybernetic implant

You've got a rival (or a small group of them) whose competitive streak can give you serious problems. Perhaps they are a fellow scientist who always casts doubt on your theories, or maybe an ice cool fighter pilot who thinks your maverick stunts are going to get someone hurt.

You're seen as an trusted figure in one of Earth's social organisations. This may be publicly known because you're a former Fortune 15 CEO or a media spokesperson for Daedalus, or it may be a great secret if you're a Humanity First cell leader.

A powerful politician is keep an eye on your career. This could be a good thing if they're invested in your success; or a very bad thing if they're waiting for you to slip up.

Give us some information on the politician and your relationship to them.

Whether you're a model worker or just a very good arse kisser, you've managed to make a good impression with the UNITED brass since you arrived. Your views will carry more weight and you're more likely to be recommended for promotion.

You have family or friends out there that rely on you for help in times of trouble.

Tell us who your dependents are, where they live and the sort of difficulties they've gotten into in the past.

You have a secret that you can't afford to come out. Maybe you developed illegal chemical weapons during the war, or perhaps you used to be part of a militant fringe organisation.

You have extensive resources beyond UNITED which may be something like a business or organization that you run. Indeed it may have been the reason you've been taken on by UNITED. It may provide you with additional discrete assistance and can be tapped for solving some issues.

You are in incredible physical condition and have a Hollywood physique to boot. This is obviously useful for physical contests, and looking like a hottie.

You have a vice that you've managed to keep secret during the UNITED vetting process. This could be a conventional addiction like narcotics or gambling or something more unusual such as bloodlust or glory-hogging.

Either from harrowing past expediences, or an effective regime of mental exercises, nothing phases you anymore. You are able to remain calm no matter the situation, whether just the extremes of human experience, or the glimpses of supernatural and other worlds.

You're a coward. In dangerous situations you always prioritise your immediate safety first, whether that be fleeing from a charging jotun or backing down before the insults of an angry god.

You've had a traumatic episode in your past and occasionally the memories of that event get the best of you. The lapses are most likely to occur in situations resembling the original incident, but even small similarities can be a trigger.

UNITED has an excellent psychiatric unit that can help with such problems, but admitting your issue would result in being removed from your normal duties until you got a clean bill of health.

Whilst still an expert in your specialist fields, you lack the breadth of knowledge that is typical of a UNITED member. You start as Inept in 5 skills rather than the normal 2.

You're perilously unfortunate. When the situation becomes dangerous you're always the first to catch a sniper's attention or 'discover' that the team has strayed into a minefield.

So long as medical care is on hand your misfortune is unlikely to be fatal.

You've had experimental techniques performed upon your person as part of someone else's secret project, and as yet there don't seem to have been any notable results. Tell us who performed the experiments and why you signed up for them.

The GMs will randomly determine whether the results are positive or negative and they'll start to become apparent over the course of the game. If the results are positive then you'll gain some sort of unusual benefit, if they're negative then you'll gain a different positive quirk as the R&D group responsible tries to compensate you for the hardship.

Inhuman blood runs through your veins, the gift of some distant ancestor's dalliance with a god or jotun. Mortals with such heritage are accorded (slightly) greater respect by the gods, and are likely to be treated differently by the other denizens of the Nine Worlds too.
Whilst your nature is apparent to those who know what to look for, the identity of your ancestor cannot be determined without investigation.

Despite it being but a month since the opening of the portal you've already managed to obtain the attention of a Valkyrie who will see your spirit on to Valhalla in the event of your untimely death.

You occasionally receive visions of what is to come. For some they can be timely and useful, for others the visions are crippling in their intensity and irrelevant to their personal concerns.

You may take this quirk in addition to your other quirks and it does not count towards your positive or negative quirks.

Although the Nine Worlds are already a dangerous place, mission protocols protect you and your team from over-reaching (at least the Director hopes so!). It is possible that you might want a bit more of a challenge though, a higher difficulty setting - if you take this quirk, the GM team will make encounters across the Nine Worlds even more dangerous and even potentially more deadly. Your team-members will have to be making sacrifices for the mission, and you yourself could even perish.

We won't be squeamish about killing your character if appropriate and they will of course be able to go out in a spectacular and dramatic fashion. Even short of death, you'll be going away with more scratches and bruises and suffering the brunt of the dangers inherent in the world.