traits:worship [The Matrix]

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====== WORSHIP FIELD ======
**Prerequisite**: [[Alien]]

The alien, when they have no worshippers, to ensure
they don’t go hungry, forces that faith on unsuspecting
and unwilling targets. The alien uses a form of
Possession to replace a target’s existing faith with their
own. The alien is surrounded by a ‘Worship Field’, an
effect that extends to an area roughly the size of a few
city blocks. This is passive and instinctual for the alien,
but through an effort of will the field can be extended
further for a time. 

The alien has to spend Story Points to
extend a field – 1 point to engulf an entire
neighbourhood, 2 points for the whole inner city, and 3
points to engulf an entire city and suburbs. The alien can
also spend a Story Point to concentrate the field on one
person in particular, as long as they can locate the
person either in person or through a video or audio link.
Everyone in a Worship Field is vulnerable to Possession,
but the effect does not work on just anyone. 

To be
vulnerable to the alien, a target must have a strong faith
of their own that can be converted into worship for the
alien. This can be a religious faith, or some other kind of
trust in a guiding force, like luck, or belief in globespanning
conspiracies, or even absolute confidence in
the Doctor. This should be a character trait, perhaps
Code of Conduct, Obligation, Obsession or By the Book,
or it could be a feature of their backstory instead. Anyone
without faith is immune to the field. Just having inner faith
isn’t enough, either. 

The alien cannot convert faith that is
hidden or unused, so the target must first be made to
draw on their faith in some way. Any time a faith-type trait
comes into play (for example, if it is tapped for Story
Points), the character’s faith is exposed. At the
Gamemaster’s option other provocations might work as
well. One way of provoking people into revealing their
faith is by scaring them. Any time a character becomes
afraid they will be vulnerable, because a scared
character instinctively turns to their faith for support.
Anyone within the alien’s Worship Field who exposes
their faith immediately becomes a target for Possession.
Resisting Possession is a Difficult task (Difficulty 21),
using Resolve + Ingenuity. If the possession is resisted
this time, the character is immune to the Possession for
one day. If the roll fails, the target becomes possessed.
Over the next day their faith will be stripped out and
replaced by the urge to worship the alien. With
increasing frequency, they will start to utter phrases like
“Praise him!” and “I submit to you my master!” 

Finally,
they will feel the rapture coming like a wave, and give
themselves over to the faith, eagerly accepting their fate.
It is possible to break a possession. Unfortunately, this
requires the target to lose their original faith, the one the
alien has replaced. The target must spend a Story Point
and also lose the trait that represents their faith. This
does not require any check, but such a major change
should be carefully roleplayed out by players.
{{tag>trait:good level:special prerequisite:alien object:characters}}
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