Stress Atavism

'Variable'☆

This disadvantage is normally available only to characters who are members of races "uplifted" from an animal state.

You temporarily "regress" when frightened, angered, fatigued, or injured. Make a self-control roll in those situations. On a failure, you behave like an animal, acting on impulse and instinct.

Once the stressful situation has passed, make a self-control roll every minute. If friends comfort you, roll at +2. If one of these people has Animal Empathy or Empathy, apply an additional +2. On a success, the attack ends and you return to normal. If you pass out from fatigue or injury before you succeed, you recover automatically when you wake up.

Point value depends on the severity of the attacks:

Mild: You have trouble speaking, and must roll vs. IQ to utter a sentence. You cannot operate complicated machinery, although you may attack wildly with weapons (-4 to hit). -10 points.*

Moderate: You suffer from all of the above problems, and have trouble understanding commands from others as well: roll vs. IQ to understand a sentence spoken by someone else. If you are attacked or challenged, you must make a self-control roll to avoid acting "on instinct." -15 points.*

Severe: You cannot speak or understand others, or use tools (except possibly as clubs), and automatically act on instinct at all times. You behave like your primitive ancestors! -20 points.*

Stress Atavism may result in additional troublesome behavior. Pick a suitable mental disadvantage, halve its value (drop all fractions), and add this point cost to the above costs before applying the self-control multiplier.