The Old World: Grim and Perilous

Chapter 5
The Stigma of
Corruption
This chapter introduces a new game resource - corruption. Corruption represents the effects
that the dark influences of Chaos exert on every living being. It offers strength and energy to
change things to your advantage, but abusing it can have terrible consequences.
Corruption
Threshold
Your character's corruption threshold represents
how much chaotic influence their
bodies and minds can withstand before falling
into Chaos. Characters can suffer corruption
by contact with chaotic magic or creatures,
but also by embracing the raw power
offered by Chaos. Corruption can be used as
a resource by players to change the outcome
of important skill checks or to trigger powerful
character abilities. However, recovering
from corruption is by no means easy and usually
requires special effort and playing against
your character's goals.
Your character's starting corruption threshold
is determined at character creation, and based
upon species and Presence rating. After you
determine this initial value, increases to Presence
rating after character creation does not
increase your character's corruption threshold;
corruption threshold improvements are
then acquired only by purchasing appropriate
talents, such as Pure.
Suffering
Corruption
Characters can be corrupted in many ways.
Below we present the most common ones.
Dark Deal
Chaos Gods are insidious in spirit and are often
willing to help... but for a price. Once per encounter,
your character may suffer corruption to add
t to the results of their next skill check.
Fulfilling a Chaos God's
Agenda
Whenever your character does something (intentionally
or not) that contributes to one of
Adversaries and
Suffering Corruption
Minions and Rivals do not suffer corruption. Anything
that normally inflicts corruption inflicts
five wounds per one corruption instead. Nemeses
can suffer corruption, but never voluntarily.
126 The Old World: Grim and Perilous