Universal Benefits
All characters receive a +2 bonus on Charisma-based checks when dealing with NPCs who share the character's allegiance(s).
Universal Limitations
All characters suffer a -2 penalty on Charisma-based checks when dealing with NPCs with an allegiance directly opposed to the character's allegiance(s).
Note
The benefits and limitations listed for the below allegiances are general cases. In some cases (such as specific communities, organizations, or religions), other benefits and limitations may apply. These situations will be noted in articles pertaining to those specific cases.
Community Allegiance
Characters with a community allegiance place the needs of their community above their own needs and those of their immediate families and friends (though in truth these needs often overlap). Community allegiance drives characters to not only protect their community, but to better it. Such characters adventure as a means to accomplish these goals; rather than digging through the ruins for fun and profit, community-minded characters are in search of artefacts that will provide for their community.
Benefit
When acting in the best interest of her community, even for extended periods of time, a hero can tap into strength she did not know she had. When on an adventure or mission that directly benefits her community, a character with this allegiance gains a +2 on all action point dice rolls, allowing up to +8 from spending an action point. If a character spends the action point for another purpose, such as activating a talent or class ability, no benefit is gained.
Limitations
The Gamma World is an insular place, where communities strive for independence and one's neighbours are viewed with (often well-earned) suspicion. Characters with a community allegiance suffer a -2 penalty on all Charisma-based checks involving characters with an allegiance to another community.
External Allegiance
An external allegiance is one forced on the character from the outside. It resembles some other allegiance, but instead of being chosen by the character it is selected by someone or something else with the ability to change the character’s perceptions or priorities. External allegiances are rare, but form an important driving force when encountered. Any time a character is loyal to a cause he has no independent interest in, he’s under the effect of an external allegiance.
In most cases external allegiances are the products of Final Wars technologies, such as cybernetic implants, nanites, genetic viruses, wetware re-wiring of the brain and psychotropic drugs. Such methods are no longer common in the Gamma Age, but the occasional dormant psycho-weapon can still be found, designed not to destroy enemies but absorb them. Such weapons may be hard-wired to a specific allegiance (often causing confusion, as a character may become fiercely loyal to a place or organization without having any idea of what or where it is), or leave the character open to the first philosophy she hearsexplained after being affected, causing her to attach herself to whatever group or religion she encounters next. These external allegiances are sometimes permanent, and whole alliances have formed from groups afflicted with them. Ironically, such groups can recruit true loyalists later, who take the new allegiance willingly.
Psionics and mental mutations can also generate external allegiances, though generally only for short periods of time. Even unthinking creatures can create such allegiances, such as a creature that exudes a chemical that causes anyone who touches it to feel strong love for it, protecting it in the face of any danger. Few mind-affecting powers have the staying power to enforce an external allegiance for long. Of course, the wielders of such abilities can gain great power very quickly, often baffling other groups in the same region.
More mundane effects can also result in external allegiances. A character whose daughter has been kidnapped to ensure his loyalty certainly has a personal allegiance (to his family), but as months and years pass, he develops an external allegiance to the group he’s working for. A character who has suffered great stress or hardship may well suffer a kind of mental collapse and begin sympathizing with those causing her pain, forming a purely emotional external allegiance. Brainwashing, both the simple form practised by many cults and more complex “mind-games” can also trick a character into holding an external allegiance.
Mundane external allegiances rarely last long without regular reinforcement. The kind of reinforcement required varies depending on the coercion used to place the allegiance. Brainwashed characters must be reconditioned at least weekly, while those blackmailed must be reminded of the threat monthly.
Benefits
If the emulated allegiance has a physical, obvious benefit such as an increase to the character’s Wealth bonus, the GM may decide to grant the benefit to a character operating under an external allegiance. Less tangible benefits, such as bonuses on skill checks or changes to the function of an action point, are never gained. Even if the character doesn’t realize it himself, his allegiance is too transitory to inspire the kind of determination that grants these benefits.
Limitations
The main drawback of an external allegiance is itself — the disadvantages of holding an allegiance without choosing it are obvious. The character is forced to advance a cause she has no real love for, and may well make enemies of similar minded-creatures who do not realize her true beliefs. The character is constantly struggling
with her enforced commitment, causing her to never truly open up when interacting with others. As a result, she suffers a –1 penalty on all Charisma-based skills and checks. Additionally, her lack of true devotion can be detected by those who deal with her regularly. A character may make a Sense Motive check to realize an individual with an external allegiance is under some form of coercion (DC 15 if the individual is aware of the external allegiance, 25 if the force pressuring her to hold
the allegiance is hidden even to the character holding it).
Object Allegiance
Sometimes a character’s allegiance is not to a person or a place, but to a thing. This may be a holy relic, a repository of genetic material to repopulate the world, a beloved heirloom or anything else unique and noteworthy a sentient being might give its life to protect. Such objects are often the focus of towns or organizations, but a character may care more about the inanimate thing itself than the place or people devoted to it.
If the object is too large to be moved easily, the character treats its location as an important community or shrine. In these cases the character acts as though he had a community allegiance to that location, but his actions may be very different from those of characters who care about the location itself or the people living in it. A shrine-keeper defends the home of his beloved object against any threat to it, but might well betray the people living there to a more powerful group if convinced the new group makes better defenders for his object.
If the object is mobile, the character wants to carry it with him at all times. If he can, he acts like a character with a self-allegiance, though it is the object he carries that he truly wishes to keep safe. If someone else is carrying the object, the character protects and aids that person, at least until he can get the object for himself. Few characters are selfless enough to admit that someone else may make a better defender for the focus object, but those who are that honest with themselves spend a lot of effort finding the best bearer for the object of their loyalty, and try to convince her to carry and defend it.
If the object is lost, the character’s primary focus is to locate it. This comes close to a theological allegiance, as the character is essentially on a quest. It’s even possible for a character to be devoted to finding an object that doesn’t exist. It may have been destroyed, or it may be a mythic device that never existed to begin
with. Characters with this allegiance can’t ever settle in one location, as they are constantly driven to hunt down the object, even if they have no better clue to its location than “not here”.
Benefit
A character with an object allegiance gains different benefits, depending on the status of the object. If it’s in a location, the character gains the benefits of a community allegiance. If it’s on a person, he gains the benefits of a self-allegiance (if carrying it) or a personal allegiance (if someone else is carrying it). If it is lost, he gains the benefits of a theological allegiance while searching for it.
Limitations
If the object of a character’s allegiance is threatened (may be destroyed, stolen, damaged or lost within the next 24 hours), the character has difficulty concentrating on anything else. Until such time as the object is clearly safe, all action point expenditures not directly related to protecting the object cost double the normal amount. For example, a character who wishes to add 1d6 to a d20 roll must spend 2 action points instead of 1. The GM is the final arbiter of when an object seems threatened, and when it appears to be safe once more.
Opposed Allegiance
Where most allegiances represent a dedication to aiding and protecting a person, place or thing, an opposed allegiance marks the character’s desire to destroy something. A character with an opposed allegiance wants to see a community, organization or person brought low. The target might even be something as nebulous as a general philosophy or outlook, for players who don’t mind their characters having no real shot at ever completing their goals.
So total is the character’s focus on her opposed allegiance, she is not allowed to have any other opposed allegiance, and just one positive philosophical or religious allegiance. If a character successfully destroys the target of her opposed allegiance, she may either immediate replace it with a related opposed allegiance (“The Purists may all be dead, but the villages that supported them still exist!”), or drop the opposed allegiance with no penalties.
Benefit
While directly attacking the person, community, or organization she opposes, a character with this allegiance gains a +1 morale bonus on all attack rolls and weapon damage rolls.
Limitation
A character with this allegiance is obsessed with destroying the target of her hatred. If an opportunity arises to strike out against her target and the character doesn’t take it for any reason, she suffers intense emotions of anger at the circumstances that have blocked the course of her revenge. These impose a –2 circumstance penalty on all Intelligence-, Wisdom- and Charisma-based checks she makes until she successfully hurts her foe in some way.
Additionally, the character can not abide those who support her hated foe, and suffers a –4 penalty on all Charisma-based checks (except Intimidate) she makes when interacting with a known supporter.
Organizational Allegiance
Similar to a community allegiance, allegiance to an organization places the character as a part of a greater whole, important only insofar as he is capable of moving the organization towards its goals. It is in these goals that the two differ, however. Communities usually have few aims other than survival and perhaps stable growth. Organizations, however, usually have specific goals and possess the resources to pursue and achieve those goals. Characters with allegiance to the organization are among those resources.
Organizations that quality for this allegiance range wildly in size, scope, and purpose. Examples include trade organizations, mercenary armies, scholarly institutions, secret societies, criminal networks, and exclusive clubs.
Benefits
Organizations of any size tend to have resources at their disposal. Characters with an organization allegiance benefit from those resources, gaining a one-time +4 Wealth bonus when the character is created and an additional +2 Wealth bonus every time the character gains a level, assuming the character maintains regular contact with the organization, and the organization remains capable of doling out resources.
Limitations
Two main limitations present themselves for characters with an organizational allegiance. First, organizations have enemies, and those enemies are shared by its members. Most organizations require their members to possess some method of identification--even if it is only a secret handshake--and the organization's enemies are likely to recognize it as well. In addition, an organization requires action of its members. The organizational hierarchy will make requests or demands of the character; failure to comply strips the character of the benefits of the allegiance at best, and may cost much more.
Personal Allegiance
Some individuals dedicate themselves to a single person or small group of people. Family or loved ones, strong leaders, or even those who serve the character make good objects of personal allegiance. By taking this allegiance, the character actively chooses to place another person's life (or happiness or goals) before her own. Should the need ever arise, a character with this allegiance will suffer and even die to ensure the continued life, happiness, or success of the object of the allegiance.
PCs can be bound together by personal allegiances. They may all be members of the same family, or the last survivors of a destroyed community. If only one character has this allegiance, the character may be the guardian of another, or even simply lovestruck. Non-player characters may be found on either side of the personal allegiance, depending on the nature of the relationship between the NPC and PC.
Benefit
So long as the character's personal allegiance is somehow threatened, the character receives a +1 bonus all all checks and rolls made with the goal of alleviating the threat. This should be an immediate threat: Going off to kill the mutants that might attack the village where the allegiance lives is not sufficient, but going on an adventure to locate the cure for a terrible wasting disease suffered by the allegiance counts.
Limitations
Characters dedicated to an individual or small group are often easily swayed and subject to the whim of that person or those people. Characters with this allegiance do not roll when confronted with an opposed Charisma check by the object of their allegiance. Instead, the character is presumed to have "rolled" a zero, and only ability score adjustments, skill ranks, base saves, and other circumstantial modifiers affect the opposed check.
Self Allegiance
A character with self allegiance places his own needs and desires above those of any other individual or group. A self allegiance means dedication to your own shelter, wealth, safety and comfort before worrying about taking care of others. Such a character may be open about his allegiance (“You gotta look out for number one”), or he may hide it behind a veneer of caution, cowardice, or pragmatism (“I couldn’t risk myself, I’m the only one who knows how to repair the truck”).
Though self allegiance is by definition selfish, it is not necessarily “evil.” A character can place his own needs first without being willing to harm others to achieve his goals. A character with this allegiance is unwilling to make sacrifices for the good of others (unless, of course, he sees long-term gain in doing so), but he may not automatically be willing to steal, lie or cheat to get ahead, either. Certainly most self-allegiant characters are willing to bend or break the normal conventions of acceptable behaviour, but many are also smart enough to realize they shouldn’t do so obviously. It’s bad for long-term survival to get a reputation as a me-first lawbreaker.
A self allegiance isn’t compatible with groups that regularly risk themselves for others. A character with this philosophy won’t work out in many communities or alliances. Though anyone can hide his nature for a short time, a self-allegiant character can’t fit into groups whose members place some cause above their own well-being, such as Elfivers, or limit themselves for a philosophical belief, such as the Seekers. Some groups attract self-allegiant characters, either because they provide a high degree of security like the Peace Brigade, or because they encourage self-development like the Cyclers.
Benefits
A character with self allegiance who spends an action point to add to a saving throw is allowed to roll 2d6. He adds the bonus from the higher of the two dice to the saving throw.
Limitations
A self allegiance is considered opposed to all other allegiances, with the sole exception of personal allegiances dedicated to the character with self allegiance. (If a general has a self allegiance, those with a personal allegiance to him are not opposed.) Because of this, a character with a self allegiance suffers a –2 circumstance penalty on all Charisma-based checks made when interacting with characters with other allegiances.
A character may not gain the benefit of a self allegiance and any other allegiance. Either the character is too selfish to gain the benefit of another allegiance, or he’s not selfish enough to gain the benefit of a self allegiance. This does not prevent a character from taking other allegiances, though normal limits apply, but does prevent any of those allegiance benefits from applying.
Theological and Philosophical Allegiance
Moral, ethical, and religious belief systems provide direction and support for characters in a way that nothing else can, even a loved one, or a strong community. There are innumerable philosophies in the Gamma Age. Some ancient ones survived the Final Wars and much more through the ages. Some have appeared since the End, created by a world that did not make sense when compared to the belief systems of the ones before it.
This category of allegiance provides players with a great deal of latitude. A philosophical allegiance can be literally any belief, from a dogma-heavy religion to simple pacifism. The key to this allegiance is that it is a strongly held belief, not a passing fancy; and that characters with this allegiance are motivated to act (or not) by their beliefs.
Benefits
The internalized nature of this allegiance colours the character's perception of the world, and fuels the character's actions. As long as the character is considered by the GM to be acting within the tenets of the character's belief system, he may, once per session, gain the maximum benefit of spending an action point (usually +6), rather than rolling his action point dice.
Limitations
If a character with a philosophical allegiance acts contrary to that belief, the character is considered to be suffering from a crisis of faith. Until such time as the character resolves the crisis, all action point expenditures cost double the normal amount. A crisis of faith can only be resolved with time and roleplaying; the GM is the final arbiter of when a crisis of faith has been successfully resolved.
