The Legacy
”The greatest burden a child must bear is the unlived life of the parents.” - Carl Jung
When a character’s parent or ancestor dies there is a chance their obsession and will possesses their progeny. Like in Lovecraftian fiction (e.g. “The Case of Charles Dexter Ward”), the horror of the parent and of history is all too real. The possession replaces the target character’s motivations with one of the ancestor’s. The target may resist the Legacy with a relevant check (POW, CHA, or Unnatural). If they pass, they only lose SAN and feel a shiver down their spine. They also feel an unexplained intuition that something happened to member of their family.
If their fail, the Legacy overwrites one of the Motivations (if in Cthulhu Eternal, Delta Green) or Traits (if in Kult) with a new Disorder (CE, DG) or a Dark Secret (Kult). The character feels that there is a promise of salvation, power, or peace if they pursue this goal.
Disorder: The Legacy
The GM (together with the player, if the character is a PC) decide the exact nature of the goal. The goal should be dangerous or, at best, ambivalent to the character’s well-being.
Every time the character is exposed to an opportunity to act upon this goal, they must pass a SAN test or suffer -10% on all their actions for the next 15-30 minutes, or as long as the opportunity is present.
A character obtains a reward when a goal is completed. The GM decides, but it should be a personal improvement (+5-10% to a skill etc.) However, the Legacy doesn’t wane. The burden of history and of your ancestor never ceases. The character must make another roll (POW, CHA, or Unnatural) to resist gaining another goal. No matter what you achieve, you will never live up to your parents’ dreams. The cycle continues.
(photo from Unsplash)