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| A defining characteristic of minions is that their nature is, on
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| one hand, very much greater than that of normal men, and
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| on the other, very much less. A minion’s unique
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| manifestation of this dualism is described by two
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| statements, a More than Human and a Less than Human,
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| written by the player as part of character generation.
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| The Less than Human should describe an excessive, crippling
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| limitation, qualified by a very narrow ‘except’ or ‘unless’
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| condition.
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| EX: Is mute, except when singing hymns.
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| EX: Walks with an uncontrollable limp, moving slowly
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| and awkwardly, except when swinging from the
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| ropes and rafters of the belfry.
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| EX: Will transform into a stone every evening, unless
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| fed by a child that day.
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| And to be clear, players should expect the negative effects of
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| the Less than Human to be interpreted with some
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| excessiveness during gameplay. Any notions about just how
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| crippled a normal human might be by a given handicap
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| should be abandoned in favor of far more surreal
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| expectations. For example, a human with an open wound in
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| his thigh should succeed in chasing down a spastically
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| limping minion, and a mute minion should routinely find it
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| almost impossible to communicate. When a Less than Human
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| is relevant, the game’s conflict resolution system is not even
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| consulted. The outcome is simply automatic failure, on a
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| cinematic scale, described by the GM.
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| That is, of course, for situations not within the scope of the
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| second ‘except/unless’ half of the statement. Inside the
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| scope of the except/unless, the minion should be understood
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| to have a generous human level of ability
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| A minion also gets one similarly-structured More than
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| Human, which describes a powerful and surreal ability. It is
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| automatically successful, and impressive, outside the scope
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| of the except/unless condition. Within the scope of the
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| except/unless, the minion is understood to have an ordinary
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| human level of ability.
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| EX. Powerfully truthful and persuasive, except
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| between midnight and 2:00 a.m.
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| EX. Can heal the sick with the power of his mind,
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| except not animals.
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