At character creation you must choose five Effects from any combination of the Abilities listed below. Three of these must be “positive” (+), generally aiding the character in achieving their IC goals, and two “negative” (-), generally hindering them in what they want to achieve. An Effect which specifies “+ and -” counts as two Effects towards your total: one positive (+) and one negative (-). You can take both + and - effects in the same Ability, unless the mechanics are contradictory. For example you could choose:

- (+) You cannot receive an Injury from bludgeoning and (-) You receive Lasting Injuries from being perforated

But not

- (+) You cannot receive an Injury from bludgeoning and (-) You receive Lasting Injuries from being bludgeoned

You must choose at least one Effect which consumes Zip, unless one of your other mechanics (Cartoon Logic or Writing Convention) consume Zip, or if you have the Two Dimensional (-) Cartoon Logic.

When choosing your abilities, you must explain why the character gains those benefits or drawbacks. For instance, Superhuman sight might come from being a cartoon eagle, whereas being a master of disguise might come as a result of being a professional crook.

In addition, one of the Effects may constitute a Unique Trait. Instead of choosing from the normal list, a player may submit their own suggestion for what benefit or hindrance the character receives. Players may include as part of their suggestion the actual mechanics for this Effect, but this is not expected. The GMs will make one attempt to implement this request before the first session. If you are happy with this, you may then take the Unique Trait, otherwise you may take one of the normal Effects for that Ability your Unique Trait was part of. All Unique Traits are subject to updates/balancing over the course of the game, but this will be communicated clearly and subject to replacement if it happens.

The list of abilities are:

• Beef (for physical prowess)
• Gumption (for resilience and durability)
• STEAM (for Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Maths)
• Sneakiness (for disguise and stealth)
• Gorm (for senses)
• Wits (for knowledge and planning capabilities)
• Prestige (for social standing and income)

Beef: (+) You are a strong flyer. You can completely ignore any obstacle you can fly around and GMs and Crew will consider your character’s ability to fly an advantage in arbitration.

Gumption: (+) You cannot receive an Injury from X. Define X.

STEAM: (+) Once per session when you get a crafting component you may take a second copy of it.

Sneakiness: (+) You are somewhat incorporeal and as such can press yourself through solid objects given time.

Gorm: (+) You have an unusual superhuman sense. Define it. Once per hour you may ask the crew a question. They will tell you anything you can sense with it that may be relevant.

Wits: (-) You are highly empathetic. When someone in a Scene with you takes an Injury, you take the Inconsolable Injury.

Prestige: (-) You have a bounty on your head. Players that defeat you in a violent conflict and give you the Arrested Injury will receive 2$.

You may choose to use one of these to build a Unique Trait, or come up with something completely different. You are still limited to a maximum of one Unique Trait, even if you do use one of these.

• (+) You automatically win violent Conflicts. You may spend 1 Zip to inflict an additional Injury or a worse Injury on the loser of a conflict with you.
• (-) You automatically lose violent Conflicts.
• (+) You have superhuman physical strength and can move or break objects as big as a car. You may spend 1 Zip to lift anything (although possibly not for long!).
• (-) You are weak as a mouse and cannot break objects bigger than a thimble.
• (+) and (-) You are enormous, bigger than a car. You can reach high places and easily step over most obstacles outside, but struggle to fit in tight spaces and are an easy target.
  • Although this means that you can reach further and cover a bigger area, it does not make you particularly stronger, and gives no benefits to violent conflicts based purely on raw strength.
• (+) and (-) You are tiny, smaller than a housecat. You can get in tight spaces and are easy to miss (visually and kinetically), but will struggle to get around most locations as almost anything can become an obstacle for you.
  • This doesn't make you physically weaker or give you drawbacks in violent conflicts, but it will make it harder for you to catch someone. However, it will also be harder for them to catch you.
• (+) You are incredibly fast. You automatically win conflicts of speed. You may spend 1 Zip to briefly break the sound barrier, moving so quickly you cannot be seen (although it can certainly be heard).
• (-) You are incredibly slow. You automatically lose conflicts of speed.

• (+) You cannot receive an Injury from bludgeoning.
• (+) You cannot receive an Injury from being cut.
• (+) You cannot receive an Injury from being perforated.
• (+) You cannot receive an Injury from mental stress.
• (-) You receive Lasting Injuries from being bludgeoned.
• (-) You receive Lasting Injuries from being cut.
• (-) You receive Lasting Injuries from being perforated.
• (-) You receive Lasting Injuries from mental stress.
• (+) You may spend 1 Zip to ignore any Injury.
• (+) and (-) You can take an Injury on behalf of someone else in the same Scene as you, preventing them from taking it.

• (+) You may perform experiments to discover new Item recipes. Once per session you may ask a GM how you (or a volunteer, willing or unwitting) are given a Lasting Injury as part of an experiment to discover how to make an Item you specify.
• (+) You may obviate the need for a Component in making an Item. A single crafted Item can only benefit from this once, and this cannot reduce the Components required to craft an Item to 0.
• (-) Crafting doesn’t come as naturally to you. You will be required to get more of a certain Component than needed for a crafting. You need to expend an extra copy of one of the Components to make something.
• (+) You may restore all charges to an Item by expending 1 Zip.
• (+) You have a special Item. Describe what it does! This MUST be your Unique Trait. It will still have charges (most likely 1-4 per session, depending on how strong the effect is).
• (-) You are no good with technology. Whenever you use an Item, there is a 50% chance it will consume all the remaining charges.
  • You can type “/use_charge” in Discord to self-adjudicate this.
• (-) Everything you make is very… fragile. Items you make always only have one charge.
• (-) You are a useful source of spare parts. Once per session when someone wins a Beef or Sneakiness conflict with you, they can give you a lasting Injury as they steal any crafting Component of their choice from you. Other players will know that you have taken this.
• (+) You have good expertise at laying traps with Items. Describe in your private channel a suitable Item that you already have that you are using, as well as a triggering condition (opening a door, pressing a button, sitting in a certain spot, etc). Whenever a character in that Scene performs that action, they are affected by the Item as if you were engaging in a violent Conflict with them, although you do not still need to be present in the scene.
  • Do not rely on the Crew or GMs to keep an eye out to see when this is happening, we are likely to miss it.

• (+) You have an alter ego. You may change your character name and profile picture at any time to your ego, use another discord account to play them, or use PluralKit to play them, as you prefer.
• (+) You are a master of disguise. You may change your character name and profile picture to another character’s (with their player’s OC consent).
• (-) You must honestly answer any question you are asked IC.
  • By taking this, you are accepting that you may lose some agency over your character's actions.
• (-) Crew and GMs are free to alert people to your actions and status any time they like, and will probably do so when it is least convenient.
• (+) You are very sneaky, and only very observant characters can see what you are doing. At any point in a Scene, you may become hidden and start sending messages in spoiler tags (||like this||), describing to the GMs and Crew what you are doing in that Scene. When you next send a non-spoilered message in that Scene you are revealed and cannot send any more spoilered messages there. A spoilered message sent this way must be prefaced with the non-spoilered term: “sneakily: ||spoilered text||”. Players can only read this if they have the relevant Gorm Effect.
• (+) Once per session you may gain access to spy on a private channel or thread you do not have access to but know exists. Alternatively, you may ask the GMs, who will inform you of the existence of a private channel or thread and allow you to spy on it.
  • Private channels on Discord are used for locations that are not widely known about, such as an underground speakeasy. Private threads are used for Scenes happening in secret or in isolation within a known location, such as one of the side-rooms at the Town Hall.
• (+) You automatically win conflicts of Sneakiness. In addition, at the cost of one Zip, you may have a Crew member send a single message describing your actions on your behalf rather than writing messages yourself, using this to obfuscate who is responsible for them.
  • If your action results in immediate consequences, these can be discussed with the GM in your private channel rather than revealing yourself.
  • An example might be messaging in your private channel “I grab the Purple Puma Diamond while no-one is looking”, to which a GM will message the Museum channel with “The Purple Puma Diamond suddenly seems to have gone missing!”
• (-) You automatically lose conflicts of sneakiness.

• (+) You have superhuman hearing. Once per hour you may ask the crew a question. They will tell you anything you can hear that may be relevant.
• (+) You have superhuman sight. Once per hour you may ask the crew a question. They will tell you anything you can see that may be relevant.
• (+) You have a superhuman sense of smell. Once per hour you may ask the crew a question. They will tell you anything you can smell that may be relevant.
• (+) You have superhuman taste. Once per hour you may ask the crew a question. They will tell you anything you can taste that may be relevant.
• (+) Once per hour, you may ask a character if they are telling the truth. They must answer honestly.
  • While this will always work on NPCs, it won't work on PCs who do not have Lose Control. In all cases with another player however, you must check OC that this is something the other player is comfortable with beforehand.
• (-) You cannot recognize anyone in disguise, no matter how poorly disguised they are, nor are you able to discern whether someone is lying to you, unless you have already been informed otherwise. Other players will know that you have taken this.
• (+) You are extremely observant. You can read spoilered messages. You do not have to reveal you have seen it.
• (+) You tend to be more aware of what is happening in other Scenes that you’re not involved in. Once per hour you may ask in your personal channel for a snippet of information regarding something interesting happening elsewhere.
• (-) Whether it is the raccoon walking out of the bank vault with a heavy sack over their shoulder, the car speeding towards you or the missing manhole cover in the street, you are always distracted by some triviality and never seem to notice the really important things unless they bump into you or someone else points them out. You cannot notice things of importance to you in clear sight unless they make contact with you or someone else points them out, failing any attempts to look around for something.
  • In your curtain call, you are aware of things that have been set up for that moment, and can interact with them unrestricted by this effect.
• (-) You really don’t look where you’re going. When a trap is set in a location that you enter, you automatically trigger it and lose the conflict with the person who set it, being subjected to any Injuries it would cause. You also automatically lose any conflicts with people who are hidden or unknown to you.

• (+) You have encyclopedic knowledge you can draw on. You may spend 1 Zip to ask the GMs for the solution to a problem. It is not guaranteed to be one you presently have the resources to do, but it will be practical.
• (+) If your implementation of a plan results in the need for Crew or GM adjudication, they will tell you if they think your plan won’t work/is bad, and give you an opportunity to change it.
  • (Warning: They won’t give you long, and will only give you one chance to change it. Think fast.)
• (+) You have the ability to help others with Injuries. You may spend 1 Zip to clear an Injury from another character.
  • (You cannot do medicine on yourself. That would be unhinged.)
• (+) You have a brilliant mind. You automatically win conflicts of wit. You may spend 1 Zip to ask the GMs what is likely to happen in a Scene, potentially revealing facts you did not know.
• (-) Problem solving and logic do not come easily to you. You automatically lose conflicts of wit.
• (-) You are deeply suspicious. You cannot willingly benefit from positive mechanical effects originating from other characters, such as a character spending Zip to patch up your Injuries or take an Injury for you.
• (-) You cannot read (IC). Feel free to ignore anything written down in the world such as warning signs. You can still hear other characters speak and see what they are doing.
• (-) You cannot speak (at least not a language anyone else does). Feel free to communicate with hand gestures, meaningful looks, trills, honks, meeps or speech bubbles containing grammatical symbols.
  • You can still narrate your character's actions with italics, and can use these to convey intent, but cannot directly speak.
• (-) Whether you have an obedient personality, are very devoted, or genuinely believe they are there for a reason (they aren’t), you just can’t bring yourself to break the rules. If you do break an IC rule (such as the instruction of a warning sign, or an instruction set by the Town Mayor), you will receive Guiltstricken as a Lasting Injury.

• (+) You have a source of income, either from wage labour, land or capital. Describe it. You receive 3$ at the beginning of each session.
  • You may take this more than once, moneybags.
• (-) You are in terrible debt, and the Loan Sharks are after you. Say who you owe what and why. You must find 1$ to pay them each session or your lender will have your guts for garters.
• (+) You are great at getting leverage over people. Say how your power of “persuasion” manifests. You may spend 1 Zip to ask someone to do something, and if they do not try their best they receive a Lasting Injury of your choice.
  • This will always work on NPCs, but must be checked with the relevant player OC before being used on a PC.
• (+) For whatever reason, NPCs tend to be more sympathetic towards you and your goals, and more willing to trust you when you ask something of them.
• (-) Despite your appearances, NPCs often get the impression that you’re up to something. They are less willing to trust you when you ask something of them, and may require reassurance to go along with things.
• (+) OR (-) OR (+ and -) You have a significant relationship with someone. Make up an NPC, choose one from the wiki, or specify things you need to be true about them and let the GMs fill in the blanks. Tell us the nature of your relationship.
  • You may take this up to two times.