Hirsute Horror

All of the character’s body hair starts to grow at a tremendous rate; even the lightest and thinnest hairs gain thickness and volume. She attains a five o’clock shadow in minutes, and has hair pouring out of her sleeves in hours. Shaving in the morning can take a good while. The character leaves large clumps of hair wherever she goes, and the effect can easily cause social problems. Appearing neat for extended periods of time is effectively impossible.   Type: Minor negative.   Effect: If the character goes for longer than 6 hours without attending to her body hair by cutting off the excess, it starts to get in the way of normal movement, giving a -1 penalty on all actions that require quick movement and accuracy. Combat, in particular, is affected, but other attempts at physical activities may also suffer. Movement speed is decreased by -5 feet. The GM may impose other penalties as he sees fit, particularly in social situations, where a -2 circumstance penalty will often apply.   These penalties double every 6 hours. Thus, 24 hours without cutting away hair means a -8 penalty on all physical actions that require quick movement and accuracy, and speed would be decreased by -40 ft, slowing most humans down to a stumbling crawl—no wonder, considering the massive amounts of hair trailing after the poor mutant.   Cutting the excess hair is simple enough, and can be done in 3 rounds, regardless of its length—provided that the character has a sharp blade at hand, and that she doesn’t mind looking like a badly trimmed poodle.   Biotech: Implant.


Cover image: Trash Planet by nkabuto