Traits and tags are labels for all sorts of things, including talents, skills, circumstances, minor super-powers, vulnerabilities and other terms that describe a character’s capabilities. Most of these are positive things, while others are more challenging. The elements of a character’s backstory grant them a number of Traits and tags. They can also have others over and above those that aren’t necessarily affiliated with Origins or Occupations.

In general, Traits have a mechanical effect in the game, but tags do not. Traits come with rules and often have some sort of benefit for the character. Some Traits can be challenging to the character. When those Traits become challenging in the course of play, the character can earn Karma points for dealing with them.

Tags mostly cover narrative elements, things that can affect the character’s story but that don’t have a direct mechanical effect in the game. This includes things like whether the character’s identity is public or secret, where they’re from and other similar elements of their backstory.

Adding Traits

A character’s rank determines how many additional Traits they can choose beyond those granted by their origin and occupation. Some Traits are available to anyone, while others are restricted, often to characters with a particular origin.

Adding Tags

A character can have any number of tags. There is no limit.

While we list a number of example tags later in The Book, you should feel free to come up with new ones and apply them to your character as you like.

Example: Spider-Man has the following traits:

• Audience
• Combat Reflexes
• Connections: Sources
• Free Running
• Inventor
• Pundit
• Scientific Expertise
• Weird

Spider-Man also has the following tags:

• Heroic
• Obligation: Aunt May
• Poor
• Secret Identity