Hindrances

The following Hindrances are available in Hawkmoon campaigns. They reflect the burdens of the Tragic Millennium: broken loyalties, ruined houses, imperial cruelty, forbidden knowledge, strange destiny, and the long shadow of Granbretan.

Unless otherwise noted, these Hindrances follow the normal rules for Hindrances in Savage Worlds Adventure Edition.

Major Hindrances

Branded Renegade (Major)

You are known as a traitor, deserter, or apostate by a powerful faction, most often Granbretan or one of its Beast Orders.

Imperial officers, informants, and collaborators may recognize your name, insignia, or reputation. You suffer a –2 penalty to Persuasion rolls with those loyal to your former masters, and the GM is encouraged to introduce pursuit, betrayal, or official reprisals whenever your identity becomes known.

Doom-Shadowed (Major)

A sense of coming catastrophe hangs over you. Perhaps it is prophecy, perhaps madness, perhaps merely the shape of your life.

Once per session, the GM may force you to reroll a successful Trait roll tied to a crucial decision, omen, temptation, or moment of false hope. You must keep the second result. In return, you gain +2 to Spirit rolls to resist fear, since little in the world can terrify one already half-acquainted with doom.

Haunted By Ruin (Major)

You have seen too much: the sack of a city, the slaughter of your household, the work of forbidden science, or some horror that never leaves you.

When confronted by reminders of that past, the GM may call for a Spirit roll. Failure leaves you Distracted until the end of the encounter; a Critical Failure leaves you Shaken as well. Typical triggers include burning settlements, torture chambers, plague pits, broken banners, laboratories, or scenes of massacre.

Hunted Lineage (Major)

Your bloodline, title, household, or former allegiance has been proscribed. Your very birth is dangerous.

You suffer a –2 penalty to Persuasion rolls with those aligned against your house or cause, and you cannot safely reveal your full identity in hostile territory. Powerful enemies actively seek your capture, humiliation, or death.

Mark Of The Beast Orders (Major)

You bear some unmistakable sign of Granbretan: a ritual scar, branded flesh, surgical alteration, filed teeth, an implanted token, or some other mark that no ordinary disguise quite conceals.

You suffer a –2 penalty to Persuasion rolls with those who fear or hate Granbretan once the mark is seen. In addition, members of Granbretanian forces are more likely to recognize your origins and take an unhealthy interest in you.

Oathbound (Major)

You are bound by a vow so deep that breaking it would unmake you.

Define the oath when you take this Hindrance. It might be to protect a person, restore a house, avenge a betrayal, guard a relic, oppose Granbretan, or serve some sacred or fated cause. You must always act in accordance with the oath when reasonably able. Violating it is treated as a serious breach of roleplaying and should have harsh story consequences.

Ruinously Curious (Major)

No sealed chamber should remain unopened, no relic untested, no old document unread. You cannot leave forbidden things alone.

Whenever you are confronted with ancient machinery, occult knowledge, sealed archives, forbidden science, or clearly dangerous mysteries, you must make a Spirit roll to leave them untouched. Failure means you must investigate, experiment, pry, or at least linger long enough to court trouble.

Vengeance Against Granbretan (Major)

Granbretan took something from you that cannot be restored: family, homeland, honor, faith, or peace of mind.

You must always seek to thwart the Dark Empire when a meaningful opportunity presents itself, even at real risk. You suffer a –2 penalty to Smarts rolls involving restraint, caution, or long-term patience when confronted by significant Granbretanian agents or symbols of imperial power.

Minor Hindrances

Ashes Of Rank (Minor)

You still think and speak like one born to station, though your estate may be gone, your title disputed, or your house in ruins.

You suffer a –1 penalty to Persuasion rolls with common laborers, peasants, camp-followers, and others who resent hauteur or aristocratic assumption. Among nobles or those who respect breeding, this penalty does not apply.

Burden Of Mercy (Minor)

You are unwilling to abandon the weak, the innocent, or the helpless, even when prudence would say otherwise.

You must make a Spirit roll to leave noncombatants, prisoners, children, or obviously defenseless people to their fate when you could intervene. Failure means you try to help, shield, rescue, or delay for their sake.

Dark Reputation (Minor)

Rumors cling to you. Perhaps you served Granbretan, trafficked in relics, survived where no one should have, or simply look like a villain from a bad song.

You suffer a –1 penalty to first-impression Persuasion rolls with strangers who have heard of you or taken you for something dangerous.

Fate-Touched (Minor)

Coincidence behaves strangely around you. Doors open at the wrong time. Old enemies reappear. Odd symbols follow in your wake.

Once per session, the GM may introduce an inconvenient coincidence connected to your strange destiny: a witness who recognizes you, an omen that draws attention, a relic reacting badly to your presence, or some similar complication.

Forbidden Learning (Minor)

You know things decent people should not know, and sometimes that knowledge slips into your words or your eyes.

You suffer a –1 penalty to Persuasion rolls with clergy, traditionalists, fearful commoners, and others disturbed by occult or scientific blasphemy when your learning becomes apparent.

Gaunt Survivor (Minor)

Hard roads and harsher years have left their mark.

You gain no mechanical penalty to Attributes, but you are visibly worn, underfed, scarred, hollow-eyed, or prematurely aged. You suffer a –1 penalty to Persuasion rolls when appearance, vigor, or healthy presence matters.

Last Of Your Company (Minor)

You were not meant to survive alone.

You carry the memory of dead comrades, retainers, household guards, or fellow rebels. Whenever you are offered a chance to abandon companions in danger, the GM may call for a Spirit roll. Failure means you stay, return, or place yourself at risk rather than leave them.

Mask-Shy (Minor)

The masks of Granbretan unnerve you more than you care to admit.

You suffer a –1 penalty to Spirit rolls against fear or Intimidation caused by masked Granbretanian elites, Beast Order officers, or similarly theatrical enemies.

Melancholy (Minor)

The dying world has gotten into your bones.

You are prone to long silences, fatalism, and spells of inward gloom. You suffer a –1 penalty to Performance and to Persuasion rolls made to seem cheerful, charming, or carefree.

Old Wound (Minor)

A half-healed injury, shattered bone, sword-cut, burn scar, or laboratory maiming troubles you in bad weather or under strain.

Choose one: Athletics, Fighting, or Riding. You suffer a –1 penalty to that skill when Exhausted, wounded, or operating in severe cold, damp, or prolonged hardship.

Relic-Scarred (Minor)

You were once touched by ancient energies, strange radiance, mutagenic fumes, or the backlash of forbidden science.

You suffer a –1 penalty to rolls to resist the harmful effects of relics, occult devices, radiation, mutagens, or bizarre scientific phenomena. The scar may be visible or known only to those who study you closely.

Splendor-Drunk (Minor)

You are too easily seduced by magnificence: lost courts, ceremonial armor, impossible machines, beautiful relics, or grand promises of restored glory.

Whenever you are confronted by opulence, ancient wonder, or offers of restored power and greatness, the GM may call for a Smarts roll. Failure leaves you Distracted for one round or causes you to make some rash remark, step closer than you should, or hesitate at the wrong time.

Suspicious Of The Unmasked (Minor)

Years of intrigue, occupation, and treachery have taught you that the honest face is often the dangerous one.

You suffer a –1 penalty to Persuasion rolls in first meetings because you come across as guarded, doubtful, or faintly accusatory.

Tethered To The Past (Minor)

You cannot quite accept that your world is gone.

Choose a lost kingdom, dead ruler, broken household, or vanished cause. Whenever events force you to recognize its final destruction or irrelevance, you must make a Spirit roll or become Distracted for the scene.

Setting Notes

These Hindrances are meant to stand alongside the normal Hindrances in SWADE, not replace them. A character in Hawkmoon may still take standard Hindrances such as Arrogant, Code of Honor, Loyal, Enemy, Wanted, Curious, or Vengeful, often with a setting-specific interpretation.

For example:

a rebel hunted by the Dark Empire might take Wanted' instead of Branded Renegade
a ruined knight might take Code of Honor' instead of Oathbound
a scholar obsessed with relics might take Curious instead of Ruinously Curious

Use whichever version best fits the character and the tone of the campaign.

Hawkmoon Codex Home • Character Creation • Edges • Hindrances • Marks of the Ancients • Granbretan • Tragic Millenium Europe • Science and Sorcery • Arms and Equipment