Okay, finally. I don't know what took so long, but this has been the most difficult thing to do. It'll all be cake from here on out. So, monstrous and redeeming qualities.
First, there are levels of how monstrous a being can be. Here they are.
Starting at the bottom, you have the character as a full fledged monster. Here anytime you roll an action that corresponds with your monstrous trait you get a are able to bring the target number down by five. Essentially, only ridiculously hard stuff requires effort if it feeds your need to act monstrously. Also, people recoil from you, and any interaction with a non-monstrous person is at a -3 on all rolls you make. You have two extra expert skills that have to do with your monstrous abilities. On the downside, the Judge gets five attempts per session to make your vice control you.
Next is the Slave to your vice, where your character is just barely clinging to his ability to think for himself. You can bring your target number down by four for monstrous qualities, a minus one for all rolls with interacting with non-monstrous people, 1 proficient skill, and 1 expert skill both of which correspond to your monstrous trait. The Judge gets four attempts to make your vice control you.
At the midway is the Redeeming monster bracket, which is where characters start. You can bring down your target number in a conflict by three with monstrous rolls and 3 chances for the Judge to have your vice control you.
Next is the Monstrous person bracket which is just like the Redeeming monster bracket, but you get a plus one to those rolls the Judge makes to make you do stuff.
At the Flawed individual bracket, you can only bring down the target number for monstrous actions by 1 but the Judge can only try to make your monstrous trait control you once per session. Also, you get a +2 on the roll.
So now I'm sure that your saying. "Grigg, you terrible excuse for a human being, explain this idiotic system to me."
Thank you, ghost reader. Okay, each of these five categories has a certain number of monstrous actions you can do before you get bumped down to the next one. It's essentially a spiral, with it taking more monstrous actions to go from the rank of monstrous person to redeeming monster than it does from slave to your vice to monster. The scale (currently, to be tuned up after playtesting) as follows.
Flawed individual: Takes 13 monstrous actions
Monstrous Person: 11
Redeeming Monster: 9
Slave to your vice: 7
Monster: 5
Okay, now your saying, "Oh but Grigg, you infernal hippy story games addict, what constitutes a monstrous action?"
Thank you, my nameless friend. A Monstrous action is literally any action that corresponds to those things you listed on the character sheet as monstrous qualities. A mindflayer making a duke a thrall so he can manipulate his estate? That's one. An orc going crazy and sending three drunkards to the Sanctuary of Pelor? That's one as well. Each time you do one of these things, you get a little black mark on your Monstrous Rating (just made that up, seems to work). When you get too many, you go to the next one and get a new set of bonuses and flaws. That's the mechanic in a nutshell.
Now I know what you're saying now. "Grigg, you weak willed mockery of a mensch, what about your redeeming qualities? Those are part of this mechanic too."
Well, tiny voice in my head, I will get to that in my next entry, which will come soon. So, my friends, take care and I love you all. I really do.