Heretic Characters

Yes, you too can sell your soul to the Darkness, for fun and profit!

First of all, when you create a character for Mutant Chronicles, you can choose to play a Heretic. If you do so, you must choose one of the five Dark Apostles to serve. Unless it is worked out otherwise with the GM, you'll start as a Level 1 Heretic. Being a Heretic counts as a -2 Disadvantage. After all, if you're discovered, your offense is punishable by death - whether the Brotherhood, or any of the Corporations finds you out - and you are serving masters who will be just as eager to kill you if you slip up ... or maybe even if you do too well. (Rivalry in the ranks, you see.) It's a nasty life, often short.

If you wish to start off with something better than just an entry-level Heretic character, you can spend character points on improving your walk with the Darkness.

For 1 point each, you can purchase a Dark Gift from the list of available Dark Gifts from your Apostle. This doesn't mean you can use it effectively - You may have to buy up the appropriate MST level to use it properly.

You can also start off with a higher Rank. This costs a number of character points equal to the Rank you desire. (Please note that if you choose to be a Heretic, you start at Rank 1 for free. This is just a perk of being at the entry level. It still would cost you 2 points if you want to start off at Rank 2.) As a side benefit, if you choose this option at the start, you also start off with 3 additional MST for each level above 1 that you have in Heretic Rank.

These benefits cannot be purchased with character points after initial character creation. The only means of advancement during game play is to accumulate Heretic Advancement Points.

Heretic Advancement Points

If you are playing a Heretic character, in addition to the accumulation of Hero Points, the GM will be keeping track of Heretic Advancement Points (HAP) that you may earn.

Heretic Points are earned in much the same way as Hero Points. In fact, whenever you earn Hero Points whilst performing acts in the service of a Dark Apostle (or for your own personal advancement), you have a chance of earning Heretic Points as well - ideally, at a one-to-one rate. Heretic Points can't be "spent" in the same way as Hero Points on altering the outcome of events, but one nice thing is that if you blow Hero Points, you don't blow the corresponding Heretic Points you had earned.

Heretic Points are an abstraction of your service to the Dark Apostles. The GM reserves the right to have various advances or setbacks hit the Heretic PC based on the requirements of the plot, but in abstract form, you can spend Heretic Points - once you have enough - on advancing your character's position within his Cult. It isn't that whatever action he took that earned him Hero Points is also going to earn him prestige in the cult - It is assumed that he is performing other deeds for the cult "off camera", that are more directly impacting his position. However, due to the constraints of time, we are only role-playing a fraction of the PC's living moments and achievements.

There may be extenuating circumstances: You could increase in Rank, but then a Brotherhood Mystic uses a power of the Art that deprives you of some of your grasp of the Darkness, and as a result, you find yourself slipping in Rank once you escape and return to your fellow cultists. Or, perhaps you gain the use of a Dark Gift as a special boon from a Nepharite you have pleased. These are the spoils and drawbacks of game play, just as a PC might acquire a nifty weapon, or experience gains or loss in fortune during the course of the adventure. But barring such circumstances, the acquisition of Heretic Points is the mechanism by which a Heretic PC advances within the cults.

Please note that Hero Points cannot be spent on the things that Heretic Points get you. This breaks off from the way that a Brotherhood character might buy new uses of the Art, et cetera. In a way, this makes things easier for a Heretic IF A HERETIC IS PERFORMING IN THE SERVICE OF A DARK APOSTLE, but makes advancement impossible for a Heretic who isn't really doing anything for his Apostle at all, even if he's adventuring.

Here are basic things Heretic Points can be spent on:

Ranks

The GM reserves the right to prohibit further advancement in rank until the PC meets certain requirements, depending upon the focus of the particular Dark Apostle. However, all things being equal, here are some sample titles for Heretic Ranks.

Algeroth: Acolyte Initiate of the First Rank Initiate of the Second Rank Initiate of the Third Rank Commander High Commander Magister High Magister Necromagus Supreme Necromagus

Semai: Acolyte Initiate Apprentice Novice Postulant Symmetrician Weaver Master Heretic Lord Heretic Corruptor / Tutor

Authority

Different Dark Apostles grant different benefits to their services when they reach particular ranks, but in general, the higher the rank you are, the more authority you have within the cult.

As a rule of thumb, reaching Rank 5 means that you are given command of your own cell of heretics, and the location of your Temple is revealed to you. (Heretics of lesser rank are only taken to the Temple blindfolded and disoriented, if at all.)

At Rank 7, you will probably have several cells below you. At Rank 10, you will be sent off to found your own Temple.

It should be noted that with increased Rank also comes increased responsibility ... and chance of discovery. Even if your character does not take any Dark Gifts, and doesn't handle items of Dark Technology, increased involvement with the Darkness and increased attentions of the Dark Apostles still have supernatural effects on you. The chance is increased that Mystics of the Brotherhood might become aware of your activities in the area. It is rare for a Heretic to advance to high Rank and still maintain a double life in human society without supernatural aid to do so.