Editing Merlin Township (section)

==Mechanics==

[[category:Homebrew Settings]]
[[category:Needs Images]]
ODDITY and Crunchy Bits

As you gain Oddity Points, you get mental and physical mutations. These mutations eventually go away when you're at zero Oddity, with a rate of one disappearing per week. Maximum oddity causes you to no longer mutate, but all existing mutations are locked in, and you're given permanent status as a Merlin Township resident..
I don't know about being rejected by the town if you're at Zero-Odd, per say, unless it were something like most people are naturally a little crazy and hover at around 10-Odd or so, and you REALLY have to work to bust yourself down to Zero-Odd, stone cold sanity.

What I might suggest is that higher levels of oddity imply higher levels of comfort in and acceptance by Merlin Township, which allow you to tap into latent magics or special talents, or improves your luck and happenstance while in town.
How about as the oddity went up, part of Merlin becomes unlocked. I always see Merlin as a safe-house in our mind so accepting that Merlin exist will let the town open up to you

That makes a good deal of sense to me. It's less a measure of your sanity then and more a measure of how much you've accepted Merlin and its accepted you. Like reputation with a faction. At higher levels, you can receive summons to help the Merlin Township Party Planning Committee, you can safely explore more of the Public Library's spatially anomalous interior, you can start actually seeing imaginary friends and the faintest ghosts and spirits, etc. etc. etc.
 
The default would be ten, and Oddity would measure, more or less, the kind of mindset you'd need to be in to experience Merlin Township.Your average human Merlin resident would be 30 Oddity. Kipp Ashby would be a hard one hundred.

Then why not start crunching?
A little rough character creation concept:
There are six stats, each starting at one, with eight points to spread between all of them. They come in pairs:
:Strength and Speed: Strength measures general physical fortitude, speed measures reflexes, dexterity, and... well, speed. Together, they measure your physical capabilities.
:Rhyme and Reason: Rhyme represents creativity, lateral thinking, and mental flexibility. Reason represents logic, deductive reasoning, common sense, and general intelligence. Together, they represent mental capacity.
:Laughter and Lying: Laughter represents charisma, sense of humor, and talent at speaking. Lying represents capacity for mischief, the ability to impersonate others, and talent at telling lies. Together, they represent social capacity.
:"Skill checks" would be pairs of attributes, used in a certain way. Speed and Strength for a decathalon, Rhyme and Reason for an essay paper, Laughter and Lying for starring in a play, and other combinations, like Reason and Laughter being used to give someone therapy, or Speed and Lying used to sneak into a building in disguise.
Two traits would be picked at the beginning. They'd range from situational benefits, such as gaining a point of Lying against adults, to gaining Odddity beyond the starting level of 10.
Oddity is pretty much >>32647282.
Oddity would be gained by experiencing the very strangest sights, sounds and smells Merlin has to offer, such as the less conventional books in the town library. It would be lost by interacting with highly conventional places, such as the bank. At 0 Oddity, the only way you can go lower is if you are traumatized by a supernatural event.
Negative Oddity is at odds with the generally-benevolent atmosphere of Merlin Township, and is only gained by bad experiences wit the supernatural, whether it's the death of a loved one or experiencing a haunting. Negative Oddity individuals attract the darker side of the supernatural/

Items wouldn't usually affect your attributes, other than Oddity. The items would produce largely narrative effects, like glasses that allow you to see thoughts as words floating in the air, or a knife that cuts bread perfectly, and nothing else. The items, as well as most of the traits, are up to the players and the GM to brainstorm.

All rolls are made using d6s, with the number of dice depending on what stats are involved. In a regular roll, your DM decides on a target number, and you must roll above that target number to succeed. In contested rolls, whoever rolls the lower number fails the contest.