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Second, the Immortal receives his reward fora battle well fought. First, a Drama Point shouldalways be awarded for winning a battle withanother Immortal, unless the loser wasphenomenally weaker than the victor. In the lattercase, it may be appropriate even to take a DramaPoint away from the victor, depending upon thecharacter and role playing involved. Besides theDrama Point, however, the Immortal gains thepower and experience of his opponent. Onebonus experience point should be awarded to thevictor in a battle between two Immortals. Also, forevery four Immortal opponents defeated, theImmortal makes a Willpower (not doubled) roll. Ifhe succeeds, he gains a level in the Old SoulQuality, as described earlier in this document.The strength, power, and knowledge of theloser of the contest between Immortals manifests asa kind of “alternate past life” for the victor, and hecan call upon this knowledge and experience intimes of need.In Series that use Essence-based Quickening,the Immortal victor gains levels in EssenceChanneling equal to half the Essence Channelingof the loser, rounded down (zero is possible); andgains Increased Essence Pool equal to 1/10 of theEssence Pool of the loser (minimum 1 level).ComplicationsHere’s where the Rules of the Game we talkedabout earlier come into play. Never can twoImmortals “gang up” on a single one; if they do,there are cosmic repercussions. The majority of theQuickening goes to the Immortal who actuallybeheads the opponent. It is the Immortal whoactually delivers the death stroke who gains theDrama Point, Old Soul, and/or IncreasedEssence. The secondary Immortal gains one bonusExperience Point, to be applied however theplayer sees fit. However, the Immortal whoactually delivers the death stroke also loses levelsin skills of the Director’s choosing, equal to thesecondary Immortal’s Intelligence score, whichare transferred to the secondary Immortal. It ispossible to forget skills entirely in this manner. In17the case of more than two victors, each Immortalinvolved loses ranks in skills equal to her ownIntelligence score; all points are then pooled andredistributed by the Director. Note that this onlyapplies if two or more Immortals actively gang upon a third. Merely being present at a Quickeningdoesn’t affect the observer in any waywhatsoever. No one knows why this is, but theQuickening seems somehow drawn to only thosewho participated in the battle.Consequences for battling on Holy Groundare entirely up to the Director, but they should becataclysmic at best.CrossoversProbably the greatest thing about usingImmortals in your Unisystem game is that theycross over almost seamlessly into any other setting,with little to no adjustment whatsoever. Sincethey’re mostly empowered, long-lived humans,Immortals can be important players in your game,and while their power level does indeed approachthat of the Slayer, they shouldn’t be sounbalancing as to overshadow such a character ina more “canon” game. Look, for example, at thevery first season of B:tVS. Before he was revealedas a vampire, Angel could very easily have beenan Immortal. He had the same sort of “feel” to himthat we’ve seen many times in the Highlandertelevision series.Look also at the Watchers. Perhaps in acrossover universe the Watchers are a massive,all-encompassing organization with differentbranches to deal with different elements of the
supernatural. Each branch is self-contained, andhas its own methods, problems, andresponsibilities, but all answer to an overalltribunal or Council which enforces the secrecyand non-interference policies that they all seem toengender (remember, Giles is exceptional in hisassistance of Buffy. Most Watchers are expectedto stay back and let their Slayers handle the dirtywork).Introducing an Immortal and the Game intoany other setting is every bit as simple as a goodconcept, which players can work on with theirdirectors. The difficult part is actually on theshoulders of the Director, who must make sure tooccasionally throw in that Immortal opponent tokeep things interesting and plausible for the CastMember in question.On the other hand, introducing other types ofcharacters into the “canon” Highlander universemay be a bit more difficult. You could makeOccultism more widespread an ability, perhapsallowing Immortals to get a free level with theQuality, or make it dependent upon age. Toomuch in the way of vampires and ghosts upsets thedelicate balance of the Highlander ‘verse, which isby and large very low in the supernatural. There’salso the fact that Immortals play by their own rules,and interference by Slayers and other superswould certainly not be welcome. Still, a hybrid of‘verses is probably easier with Immortals than withany other type of Gothic Action character, andcan be a world of fun to play.18
Page 3 and 4: There Can Be Only OneSecond Edition
Page 5 and 6: Table of ContentsDesigner’s Prefa
Page 7: sequel is universally considered to
Page 10 and 11: disarray, they are still out there,
Page 12 and 13: crossfire, a suicidal Immortal can
Page 14: down to your Quickening. Your soul
Page 18 and 19: Now that the functionality of the Q

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