Inconspicuous

Custom Merit: Inconspicuous •/••/•••/••••/•••••

As per House Rules/Merits, this merit represents the effort your character puts into hiding his light under a bushel basket. An inconspicuous character is one who goes out of his way to avoid being known for a particular trait, striving for the distinction of 'average' and unremarkable. This merit may be taken more than once to reflect hiding multiple traits, and requires a descriptor for each.

For each dot you have, information-seekers must subtract the dot-level from any attempts to spot, investigate or research that particular secret. i.e. Inconspicuous (Lottery Winner) 2 would apply a -2 penalty.

See the XP Tiers page for more details of how this merit is used on Fate's Harvest. This merit is mutually exclusive with Fame of the same type. i.e. if you are Inconspicuous (Ninja), you cannot also have Fame (Ninja)

Rules of Thumb

Changelings, this merit has nothing to do with your Wyrd level, and cannot/will not conceal your power in that regard. If you are a Wyrd 8 character with Gentrified Bearing, people are going to notice you, and remember you, and quite possibly put you on a list in case you some day go woolly... :)

It can, however, be used to cover your long-term efforts at concealing such things as membership in Entitlements, Courts, etc.

If at any point a large number of people learn your secret, you may be asked to either lower your dot level in the Inconspicuous merit or trade it for Fame.

Example: Bob has Inconspicuous 1 (martial arts) to conceal his skill at karate, but makes no effort to conceal his bangin' body. Which, it must be said, is kept in such bodacious shape BECAUSE of his karate, and has suspiciously karate-inspired muscle groups and movement habits. Anyone who really knows what to look for can probably figure out his "secret" hobby without much effort.

Inconspicuous • At one dot, you aren't putting a lot of effort into hiding. Mostly, you just keep your mouth shut and hope people don't know what they're talking about.	Inconspicuous •• At two dots, you're still not putting THAT much effort into hiding it. Maybe you pick off-hours for lessons, or have your little sister go and buy your stuff, but it'd still be pretty easy to find out you were good at something.
Inconspicuous ••• At three dots, you're starting to know what you're up against. You've got some good hiding places and you're getting better at coming up with excuses for why you're building all that muscle from those private workouts.	Inconspicuous •••• At four dots, you're pretty good at this. You've got reasonable alibis, dupes to support them and the goods to make sure you can constantly prove you weren't doing what people accuse you of doing.
Inconspicuous ••••• At five dots, your alibi has an alibi, and it'd take significant digging, stalking and detective work to figure out just what you're hiding. You've spent the money on secret stashes and safes, maybe private training and a lot of bribes, or even an off-shore bank account to make it all the more difficult to trace.