The Dolorous Motley [Unknown Armies]
Power: Minor
Description: Imagine a set of jester’s motley, only all done in shades of grey. Dust rises from the Motley whenever it’s struck, and no amount of cleaning will ever get rid of the dust. On the plus side, it’s well-made (the tatters are strictly for show), surprisingly easy to remove, is warm in the winter, and cool in the summer.
Effect: Anyone who wears the Dolorous Motley has two ‘free’ hardened notches on the Self meter, for the purposes of determining Self stress checks only. So, if someone had two hardened notches in Self already, while wearing the Motley he would not have to roll any Self check at 4 or less. Because it’s not you, it’s the Motley. You’re not the same person when you’re wearing the Motley, and nobody can get to you.
Unfortunately, when wearing the Motley the user must make an Isolation (3) stress check every day that he’s used the Motley to avoid making a Self stress check. Because it’s not you, it’s the Motley. You’re not the same person when you’re wearing the Motley, and nobody can get to you.
Never played Unknown Armies.
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Is it *possible* to stack a character sheet so the isolation stress is almost automatically successful? Because .. there are some people who actually are just .. born to be loners.
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Giving the motley to one of them would actually be *useful* .. (presumably as the creator of the artifact intended…)
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Mew
The problem with that trick is, the more you succeed at Isolation stress checks, the more of a loner you become. Which causes problems for you, down the line. Unknown Armies PCs are not the sort of characters that can simply shrug off things, starting with combat. 🙂