Forums of the Megaverse®

I've gone through the O.C.C's in Systems Failure continuously, and something's always bothered me. Wacky Luck, which reads like it's some form of special ability, just turns out to be a quirk. Can anyone tell me if there's some errata I've missed somewhere along the line. Does the Wacko actually HAVE Wacky Luck? And, if so, how does it work?

Wacky Luck isn't really a special ability. It's representative of the character's fixation on a lucky charm or acts that the character perceives to be lucky, such as: "Hey, I wore this old rain jacket that last three times we got attacked by the Bugs and I didn't get hurt." The character would then start wearing that jacket all the time, even if the weather wasn't appropriate. The object itself has no special properties, but the character THINKS it does. It's a delusion on the part of the Wacko, nothing more.

Mike, you're certainly correct on the technical level. That being said, I think it makes sense to give the Wacko some minor abilities to give them additional appeal and balance with some of the other O.C.C.s.

Since I've run across this page, I've always used the house rules therein to provide that extra bonus to Wacko players. If nothing else, just the Iron Will ability (automatically passes all Bug-related Horror Factor rolls) makes sense and is a good addition.

Have fun!

Another way to represent the "wacky luck" would be to give a bonus to skills (nothing major, maybe a +5% to skills) while the character has their charm in their possession. Conversely, they would suffer a -10% to skills if the item is lost or stolen. Of course, this is strictly psychological.