Quirks

Each character in Fourth Place benefits from certain kingdom-specific features, which provide them with tools and advantages they can use to explore the titular Fourth Place. These features are split into Traits, which each character has by default, and Kingdom Quirks, which are chosen from a list, both depending on the character’s kingdom. Your character starts the game with at most two Kingdom Quirks, but may gain more as the game progresses.

Moreover, each player may take Playstyle Quirks to opt in to specific parts of the game that some players may not wish to interact with.

This page contains a complete list of Traits and Quirks, delineated by Kingdom where applicable.

• Modular - Your physical form can be easily modified and upgraded. If you possess compatible parts, you can freely install them to your body during Downtimes.
• Rigid - Your body is made from solid metal, which makes you highly durable, but may also make it difficult to fit through small spaces, or traverse difficult terrain.
• Battery Powered - You are powered by a highly-efficient battery that must be regularly recharged. It has a capacity of 5⚡, and at the end of each Downtime you must consume 1⚡ in order to remain active. Some quirks and abilities may also require energy to function. During each Downtime, if you have access to a source of power you may use it to recharge your battery.

• Expanded Battery - You have an additional battery module, providing you with an extra 2⚡ of capacity.
• Hardware Interface - One of your limbs is equipped with a tool to interface with common forms of human hardware. You can interact adeptly with electronics, and may expend 1⚡ to attempt to hack into computers, bypassing security limitations or editing ordinary behaviour.
• Industrial Strength - Your body possesses immense physical strength, and is fitted with stabilisers and a durable frame in order to harness it. You may expend 2⚡ to remove a physical obstacle, such as a reinforced door or barricade of debris, or lift or move a heavy object.
• Inhuman Sensors - You are equipped with an enhanced camera, with capabilities beyond those of human eyes. When you take this quirk, decide what kind of additional capabilities your cameras have, e.g. the ability to perceive infrared light or radio waves, or the ability to take and print photographs. Clarify your exact idea during character submission.
• Socket - A socket connected to your battery allows you to power other robots or electronics in your environment from your own supply. You may transfer ⚡ to other robots, and expend ⚡ to power mechanisms in the Fourth Place.
• Ranger - There is a particular form of traversal, usually challenging to robots, to which your limbs have been specially adapted. You might be adept at climbing, jumping, swimming, or gliding down from a height. When you take this quirk, choose such a form of traversal. You may use it freely except in extreme cases, where you must expend 1⚡. Clarify your exact idea during character submission.
• Flight - Perhaps using powerful drone propellers, or inflating hot air balloons, you are capable of flight. You may expend 1⚡ to briefly fly, long enough to cover small distances or reach around a hundred metres in the air.
• Expertise - You have developed expertise in a particular field of study or work over the course of your life. When you take this quirk, decide which field you have expertise in - for example, mechanical or electrical engineering, biology, agriculture, diplomacy, chemistry, etc. Clarify your exact idea during character submission.

• Networked - You have access to the Local Network, a mycelial web of sentiment and information that you can draw from during downtimes to gain news about local weather patterns, movements of geology and peoples, and other goings-on. You can also communicate soundlessly with other Myconids, and some Triffids.
• Decentralised - Whilst you aren't quite as tough to kill as a machine or a plant, your body doesn't really have organs. You will only die if the vast majority of your form is irreparably destroyed, although while you regrow (which may take a while) you will be… pretty small. The exception to this is water: you can, and will, drown very easily.
• Annihilation - As a decomposer, you can consume pretty much any kind of biological matter. Also, almost anything will taste good to you, as a result of this. You can destroy any small compostible object over the course of a downtime and leave zero evidence of doing so, or severely corrode a non-compostible object.

• Extrasensory - You have some nonstandard additional sense that is unique to your fungal biology. Perhaps you can detect the acidity of soil, or transmit tiny machine-readable electrical impulses. Perhaps you can sense magnetic fields, or observe the flow of air currents. Perhaps you can simply see shrimp colours. Clarify your exact idea during character submission; and feel free to quiz GMs on what is and is not acceptable.
• Ignifuge - You are flame-retardant, and will not burn no matter how hard you try. Heat is of no concern to you. You might dry out a bit if you stay in a furnace for too long, but nothing some light exfoliation won't fix.
• Adumbriant - Being possessed of a fairly weird and fairly adaptable body plan means that you have the capability to twist and alter your form if given enough time. You may use part of your downtime action (which will, of course, reduce the scope of your main action) to growing a new body part that can perform a unique and specific function, such as being an explosive if cut off, or emitting a mild neurotoxin.
• Superstructure - You are a more important node of the Network that overlaps the Fourth Place. It is likely you are somewhat socially important, and you will have more control over information that reaches you or other Myconids in the game. Cannot be taken alongside Shattermarked.
• ⚠️ Shattermarked - The organelles that balance your ability to suppress and promote sentiments and ideas shared in the Network are misaligned. You will have significantly less control over information your character would like to keep to themself, as well as suffering from instability and emotional bleed from the people around you - possibly even non-Myconids. It is recommended to only take this quirk alongside the Weird Root Playstyle Quirk. On the upside, this does mean you're more in-tune with the network, and may be able to intuit hidden meanings in the patterns that other people speak to you.
• ⚠️ Rampant - You start the game with only this quirk, and a particularly small and sickly body. At the start of each downtime, you will gain between one and two other quirks from this list (and possibly some that aren't on this list) until you have all of them. Depending on the course of the game, this quirk may cause otherwise incompatible quirks to appear together on the same character. You will not recieve ⚠️ Shattermarked unless you have taken the Weird Root Playstyle Quirk.
• Expertise - You have developed expertise in a particular field of study or work over the course of your life. When you take this quirk, decide which field you have expertise in - for example, mechanical or electrical engineering, biology, agriculture, diplomacy, chemistry, etc. Clarify your exact idea during character submission.

• Adept - Tools are your kingdom's specialty. While you may not be able to physically upgrade yourself like some of the other kingdoms, you find it much easier to utilise tools to perform specific tasks. Additionally, any human made tools match your hands very well. Who knew opposable thumbs could be so helpful?
• Mobile - You have no roots of any kind, and your body is not overly dense. As such, compared to the other kingdoms, you have much more mobility, being able to travel longer distances and tougher terrain.

Also, choose one of:

• Pack Animal - You have spent most of your life in a pack. Experienced with working in groups, you find it easier to work cooperatively with others, whether that be as part of a team, or as a leader.
• Solitary - You spent your time before entering the Fourth Place on your own. As such, while you might have a harder time working with others, you tend to be comfortable relying entirely on yourself. You don’t have the versatility of a group, but you have much less risk when acting on your own than most would.

• Airborne Agility - You are capable of efficiently gliding across the air, able to cross gaps and glide over obstacles, if you can get enough initial height. Post-sapient evolution has eliminated your ability to properly fly, but this is still useful. Your bones are hollow to allow this, and as such you are more fragile than most. Can not be taken with Aquatic Agility or Scansorial.
• Aquatic Agility - You are capable of swimming long distances and have heightened agility while in water. Swim past the crowds! Can not be taken with Airborne Agility or Scansorial.
• Scansorial - You are adapted for climbing. Whether it's trees, cliffs, buildings, or any other vertical structure, if there's enough texture to it, you can climb it. Can not be taken with Airborne Agility or Aquatic Agility.
• Compact - You are smaller and more flexible than most, able to squeeze through any gap you can fit your head through, and you are able to navigate narrow spaces with ease. While you still aren't as capable of this as your non-sapient counterparts, this is still a useful skill to have.
• Sharpened Fangs - Your body is made for fighting. You excel at hunting things down, and can tear many things to pieces quite easily.
• Heightened Senses - Sharp eyesight, strong sense of smell, keen hearing, your senses are better than most. Biological sensors are hard to beat.
• Nest Builder - You are instinctively skilled at designing and building a temporary shelter that befits of your surrounding. With just your claws and teeth, you can dig and construct a shelter for prolonged exploration without the needs of specialised tools or pre-made portable shelters. Examples of shelters includes a burrow in the ground or dry wall, a sleeping nest made of dried plant materials or building scraps, and a hammock hidden on the roof of a cave.
• Expertise - You have developed expertise in a particular field of study or work over the course of your life. When you take this quirk, decide which field you have expertise in - for example, mechanical or electrical engineering, biology, agriculture, diplomacy, chemistry, etc. Clarify your exact idea during character submission.

• Regrowth - Parts of you may be breakable, but they will easily grow back. With this, you can also graft parts of other plants onto yourself, possibly giving yourself new abilities.
• Photosynthesis - You typically will not need sustenance other than oxygen, sunlight and water. You also find it easier to traverse through environments primarily made of plants.

• Corrosion - You can produce enzyme liquids that are similar to poisons and acids. These are able to dissolve and corrode inorganic material over time, depending on how large and what material it is.
• Hardy - You are used to harsh living conditions and can survive for a long period without harm in environments that might kill other creatures, such as in acids or extreme temperatures.
• Harvest - Parts of you are edible, such as fruit or flowers, and can grow back swiftly.
• Natural Veil - Your ability to camouflage yourself in the environment is exceptional, and you can make yourself almost undetectable to sight when attempting to hide.
• Symbioticised - You have some non-sapient fungal matter grafted to you (willingly or otherwise). You can participate in Myconid spore-telepathy, and can access the Local Network.
• Reacher - You have exceptionally long roots or vines, that extend your reach far beyond other Kingdoms'. They may also be able to reach into smaller gaps and crevices.
• Worldsense - You have an extended capability to detect temperature change and vibrations, as well as a greater ability to predict weather or natural disaster. This includes being able to tell how structures may look inside by utilising root and tremor detection.
• Expertise - You have developed expertise in a particular field of study or work over the course of your life. When you take this quirk, decide which field you have expertise in - for example, mechanical or electrical engineering, biology, agriculture, diplomacy, chemistry, etc. Clarify your exact idea during character submission.

By taking this quirk you opt in to more extreme physical consequences for your actions, and particularly your mistakes. Your character may be injured or become disabled. In extremes this may involve losing access to certain traits or kingdom quirks, or gaining debuffs that affect their ability to explore the Fourth Place.

By taking this quirk you opt in to more intense emotional conflicts and outcomes. This may involve your character experiencing more emotional trauma, grief, and other forms of inner turmoil.

t h e r e - i s - s o m e t h i n g - a m i s s.

Your perceptions of reality may not be wholly accurate. By taking this quirk you opt in to experiencing loss of agency in the form of false perception.

By taking this quirk you opt in to particularly vivid and intense descriptions of gore and violence, which may in particular focus on cannibalism.

By taking this quirk you give general permission for NPCs or other player characters to be or become romantically interested in your character. Not taking this quirk does not preclude you from arranging romances or other ballgowns with other players or the GMs.