Blood Purity/Blood Affinities

[Tami]

All gypsies begin with one point of blood purity. Additional points of blood purity can only be gained by spending freebie points. Blood purities reflects the connection a gypsy has to the blood of Daenna flowing in her veins. Although a “full-blooded” gypsy is more likely to have a high blood purity score, it is entirely possible that even a gypsy with only on parent of partial gypsy lineage could have a high score. This is possible because such a “marginal” gypsy might have a more intense connection to the magic in her Blood than a different full blooded gypsy. How ever, it is rare for Gypsies of less than one quarter “pure” Blood (descended from Daenna) to have a Blood Purity score higher than two.

It is the Blood Purity that make gypsies Rom. Blood Purity is valued by all gypsies; however its most important effect is in the magical abilities and Blood affinities it give many of the Rom.

Even gypsies with no magical powers value Blood Purity highly, for the number of blood purity dice is added to all dice rolls when using any blood affinities. Their Blood also grants the Rom group power. Gypsies are sometimes able to aid their fellows through strength of their Blood. The more powerful an individual Rom’s Blood, the more help she is in such workings. (See thread on group workings for more info)

Blood purity also limits the number of blood Affinities a Gypsy can attain. A Gypsy may only have a score of affinities equal to his Blood Purity score. If his Blood purity increases over time, as a result of honing his connection to his heritage, the gypsy may learn another Blood Affinity

The only Problem with have a high level of Blood purity is that gaje feel uneasy around truly powerful Rom. The stronger the Blood sings in the veins of the Rom, the stronger the gaje’s aversion. Such an aversion manifest itself in a variety of responses, ranging from avoidance and hesitancy in trusting the Gypsy, to outright hatred and even murder. The reaction depends on both the circumstances and the individual involved.

. You qualify as a true member of the Rom….Barely. Your first social roll involving a particular gaje is made at +1 difficulty. You can have one Blood Affinity

.. You probably have at least one full-blooded Romani grandparent, and you are aware of the power that flows in your veins. You can have two Blood affinities

… the blood flows strongly in your veins. Your first social interactions involving gaje are made at +2 difficulty. The difficulty of all Romani social rolls are reduced by 1. you can have 3 Blood Affinities

…. You can feel the Blood sing in your veins, and you have learned how to channel its power with great facility. You can have four Blood Affinities

….. You are in tune with the harmonies of the Blood as Daenna herself. All initial social interactions involving gaje are made at +3 difficulty and future rolls are made at +1 difficulty. All social interactions with Romani receive a -2 to difficulty level (minimum 3) You can up to five Blood Affinities.

[Tami]

Blood affinities

The abilities below can only be used by the Rom, as they require the special magic that flows within the Gypsy Blood. So although a gaje may learn the moves of a dance or the words of a song, he will not be able to produce the effect that a Gypsy can. Despite this, the Rom do not consider such powers to be true magic, thinking of them as simply gifts of their Gypsy Blood. When using these special talents, a Gypsy rolls Blood Purity + (talent rating) to determine success. During character creation gypsies receives 3 points to spend on Blood Affinities.

The freebie cost of these abilities character creation process, these special abilities may only improve with experience and storyteller permission

[Tami]

Dance of Knives

You have master the ancient Romani art of fighting from the soul. As you move your body to the rhythm of your Blood, your knives become an extension of your body, and thus of your Blood. When performing the Dance, you move at speeds far beyond your normal capacities, and your body and knives combine in a whirlwind of motion

This skill combines the beauty of dance with the violence of combat. Gypsies with this ability use the power of their Blood to fall into a trance-like state, in which they become extremely efficient fighting machines. The dancer may either use her knives and feet in hand to hand combat or she may hurl her knives at more distant opponent. The character’s rating in this skill equals the number of attacks possible in a turn, so a character with a rating of three could attack up to three times in one turn. This also means that a character with only one dot in the dance of knives attacks normally. The first dot merely represents the initial learning of the movements. True mastery comes at higher levels.

Due to the tremendous difficulty of the Dance of Knives, the character’s rating in the skill may never exceed her Blood Purity.

[Tami]

Instinct

You always seem to know when to look over your shoulder and when to not take that shortcut through the dark alley. When you get a bad feeling about someone, it really means something, and you sometimes notice things that don’t seem important at the time, but end up being critical.

This talent is a mild form of “sixth sense.” Characters with this affinity add their instinct rating to any rolls regarding the chracter’s personal safety. The Storyteller may even wish to roll the character’s Instinct dice in situations where a strong danger exsists but the character has no normal way to detect this. In such cases Instinct + perception should be rolled (Difficulty of 8). If the roll is successful, the character should get a bad feeling about the situation. This would range from felling ‘funny” about a person who means to bilk the character out of her money to not wanting to start a car with a wired explosive.

If a roll is botched, the Storyteller should give the character some misleading information. (Botches work much better when the storyteller makes the Instinct roll). For example, if the character is deciding which alley to run down to avoid the pack of angry thugs she just swindled, the character would get a bad feeling about the alley that leads to a clean get away. Whoops.

This affinity only in regards to the character herself and is not added to roll where the character is not in any personal danger

. Novice: You generally have an umbrella with you when it rains

..Practiced: You never get cold-cocked in a fight

…Competent: Good private eye material

….Expert: You never answer the phone when a creditor calls

….. Master: Jungle predators could learn from you.

[Tami]

Luck

Ever since you were small you’ve been able to get out of even the roughest scrapes. It seems like whenever you really need it, the dice roll in your favor, the man looks the other way, or she believes your excuse about that flat tire.

This talent enables the character to add an extra dice or two to a dice pool when she decides things look really bad. However, each Lick Die can only be used one per story. So, if the character has three points of luck, she might use one point (die) early on to win at gambling, but when she has on two Luck die when she’s confronted by three angry bouncers at the club.

. Novice: You find pennies on sidewalks

.. Practiced: You can always find a parking spot

…competent: You would have been kicked off the titanic before it sailed

…. Expert: You’ve been thrown out of a lot of casinos

….. Master: Compared to you, James bond is one unlucky guy.

[Tami]

Magic

There are four different types of magical skills peculiar to the Rom. Each one of these is a unique skill, although some powerful mages have more than one gift at their disposal. No Gypsy can acquire any magical skill at a rating greater that that of her Blood Purity score. The magic of the Rom is explained in a different thread “The Magic”, but the four types are described here briefly.

Evil Eye: This ability allows the gypsy to place or remove curses upon victims of her choosing

The Sight: Gypsies with the Sight can gain insight into both the recent past and the Possibilities of the future

Mediumship: The ability to contact the spirit world

Draba: The ability to create magical devices such as charms, potions and amulets

[Tami]

Truth of the Rom

You are an extremely sincere person. You always tell the truth no matter who you are talking to – even when speaking to a gaje. You seem to be able to convince even yourself of the “real” truth of any situation, regardless of those seeming “fact” others speak of.

This ability enables a Rom to lie truthfully. In other words, the character is such a good lair that eh even believes himself (while telling the ‘truth”). This is not to say that the character doesn’t realize what actually happened, but just that he pushes the information so far back in his mind that, when necessary, even he doesn’t remember it. This enables the character to beat any sort of lie detector, empathy talent, or shrewd cop. Whenever the character attempts a lie, each point of this talent subtracts on success from the targets perception roll. So if the character has two points in truth of the Rom, someone using a lie detection device would need at last three successes to detect any deception at all.

. Novice: Can manage simple yes/no answers

.. Practiced: Can call in sick with conviction.

… Competent: Can get through an LAPD interrogation.

…. Expert: Able to pass a lie detector tst with flying colors.

….. Master: even mom believes the dog ate your homework.

[Tami]

Zapaderin

You have learned the rhythmic motions, intricate patterns and fluid gestures of the mesmerizing dance known as the Zapaderin. When you perform this dance, all those not of the Blood soon come under the spell of your grace, the trance of the rhythm. This mesmerizing dance requires constant practice and discipline, which you have full measure.

A character with this skill is able to cause anyone not of Romani Blood to become mesmerized. Unlike hypnotism, this skill does not require a willing target. However, watchers are not completely powerless. If a character can perform this dance for at least 10 minurtes, she causes anyone watching to fall into a state in which they become far more compliant and agreeable to suggestions. The effective Willpower of those watching the dance falls by one for every success the character rolls on an appearance + Zapaderin roll (difficulty 6). This effect lasts for as long as the character dances.

. Novice: Can perform the dance without any blatant errors.

.. Practiced: People love to watch you move.

…Competent: You make bellydancers jealous

…. Expert: When you dance all eyes are on you.

….. Master: Salome. Eat your heart out!