Civilian Drawn In

Three months ago your life made sense. You had a job, a routine, a reasonable working theory about how the world worked. Then something happened. You survived it. Now you know things you can't unknow, and you're still figuring out what that means.

Favored Save: Wit Save (+1D to Wit + Resolve rolls)

Power Access: None; this character has no tradition access through this template. If their lineage grants tradition access, it becomes available through lineage progression, not here.

Starting Resources: Ordinary civilian resources, the character's normal life and profession (which now functions as a cover identity and resource base). One connection to the hidden world formed during the inciting incident (a hunter who helped them, an organization that debriefed them, a community member who recognized what happened). No hidden-world specific equipment at start; they are acquiring it.

Lineage Affinity: Human. Occasionally Haunt (a Haunt who has only recently become aware of what they are maps onto this template). This is the everyman entry point, the template for characters who were not raised in the hidden world and must learn it under fire.

Design Note: The Civilian Drawn In begins mechanically weaker than templates with hidden-world training. The Progression Track compensates with faster skill acquisition and broader competence. By Stage 3, a Civilian Drawn In has developed a range of capabilities that purpose-trained hunters rarely acquire, because they were forced to learn everything rather than specializing from the start.

Progression Track: Civilian Drawn In

Stage 1 (10 XP), Fast Learner
  The civilian is not dead, which means they've been learning at a pace
  that would break most people. The education shows.
  - Rapid Adaptation: Once per scene, when the character encounters a
    threat or situation they have previously experienced (same threat
    category, same type of investigation), they may declare one piece of
    knowledge they have learned from that experience. No roll required,
    the GM confirms whether the knowledge is accurate. This reflects the
    civilian's intense retention of everything they've encountered.
  - Civilian Network: The character's ordinary life is a hidden asset.
    Their civilian job, contacts, and routines provide access to resources
    and information that hidden-world professionals can't access without
    elaborate cover. Once per session, the character may use their civilian
    identity to obtain something a hunter couldn't: building access,
    professional records, community trust, institutional cooperation.

Stage 2 (25 XP), Baptism Complete
  The character has crossed the threshold. They are not a civilian who
  knows about the hidden world anymore; they are hidden-world, with a
  civilian identity that is now genuinely dual-use.
  - Cross-Domain Knowledge: The character's unusual path has given them
    working knowledge across two threat categories (player's choice) plus
    competence in one hidden-world skill area (investigation, combat,
    research, or social navigation within hidden-world communities).
    For the two chosen categories, they know the standard weakness and
    destruction method without a roll.
  - Cover Identity: The character's civilian life has been formalized as
    a cover identity that supports hidden-world operations. Once per
    session, the character may invoke their cover identity to deflect
    official scrutiny, police, BUA preliminary contact, institutional
    inquiry, without a roll. More aggressive scrutiny still requires a
    roll (Wit + Deceive vs Threshold 2–4 depending on intensity).

Stage 3 (50 XP), The Unexpected Expert
  The character has been doing this long enough that people who have
  been doing it their whole lives are asking them questions.
  - Broad Competence: The character has working knowledge of all seven
    threat categories; they have encountered something in each and
    know the standard approach without research. For any threat they
    have personally confronted before (the GM tracks this), they gain
    +1D to the first roll made against it in each scene.
  - Perspective: The character's background gives them a view of
    hidden-world problems that trained operators lack. Once per session,
    the character may offer an outside-framework interpretation of a
    problem the group is working on. The GM must either confirm the
    interpretation is correct or provide the piece that makes it
    incomplete, either way, new information is surfaced. This represents
    the civilian's ability to see past assumptions that insiders take
    for granted.