The Current: Mr. Voight-Kampff
The Visionary of the Entangled Enforcer
Ritualist of empathy, observer of collapse, folder of truth into delicate beasts.
Appearance
A worn trench coat layered over a bureaucrat’s suit. Eyes like reel-to-reel tape. His fingers are always busy folding: birds, unicorns, broken wings. He never runs, never raises his voice. When you look again, he’s gone—but the origami is still there.
What if the test wasn’t for them, but for you? What if he already knew the answer?
Rituals
The Folded Warning
Once per session, you may leave behind a small symbolic token (a note, a figure, a sound) that acts as a delayed Drift Test for another character. When they discover it, they must either:
- Reflect and reduce their Weathering by 1, or
- Ignore it and take 1 Drift.
The False Negative
Once per session, ask another player a question that sounds like a test but is really an invitation. If they answer sincerely, both of you reduce Weathering by 1. If they dodge or deflect, mark 1 Drift instead.
If they choose to reflect, you gain insight: ask the Facilitator one true thing about their internal state or situation.
Attunement
Origami Conscience
When you channel Mr. Voight-Kampff’s insight during a moment of perceived control or enforcement, roll 1d6:
- 1–3: You uphold the illusion. Remove 1 Weathering, but mark +1 Drift.
- 4–6: You see the system’s failure. Ask the Facilitator, “What is about to collapse?” Mark 1 Weathering, but reduce Drift by 1.
Deckard’s Lament
You may attune to Mr. Voight-Kampff during a moment of uncertain authority. Roll a d6. On 4–6, you see through a system’s illusion—but gain 1 Weathering as the truth unsettles you. On 1–3, the illusion comforts you; clear 1 Weathering, but mark +1 Drift.
Weathering Effect
Empathy Residue
The more you resist his presence, the more your thoughts become shaped like questions. When Weathering reaches 3+, his voice sometimes speaks from behind your own eyes. You begin asking others the empathy test… and not all of them pass.
Manifestations Across the Drift
The Memory That Stalks the Badge
Mr. Voight-Kampff is whispered of in old constabulary logs—an inspector who never signed out of duty, whose final arrest report ends mid-sentence. In Arkham, he appears in fog-choked alleyways or behind you on cobblestone steps, folding an origami dog from a police summons. He leaves behind interrogation slips filled out in faded ink, always signed with a looping VK. Players may encounter him in the Department of Records, where he silently judges the ghosts of cases unsolved, or in séance-led patrols where his presence may grant clarity to haunted evidence—or cause it to dissolve entirely.
- Weathering Effect: +1 to Reflection rolls when uncovering long-buried institutional harm. -1 to Wonder when acting on authority without consent.
- Ritual Addition: “To Ask the Folded Witness”: burn a note of bureaucracy; the next ghost you question must tell you what they regret most.
The Agent Without Allegiance
In divided Berlin, Mr. Voight-Kampff appears on both sides of the Wall. Sometimes he’s a West German bureaucrat with too many clearance levels, other times a Stasi interrogator who walks through mirrors. Always, he carries a small black notebook with one page missing—your name scrawled on the tear. He manifests in abandoned metro tunnels, cinema projectors playing films that were never made, or surveillance archives where every photograph has been subtly altered.
- Attunement Effect: Gain access to the Origami Conscience—a one-time chance to reframe a personal betrayal as an act of resistance.
- Drift Trigger: If two players question their memories in the same scene, Mr. Voight-Kampff may emerge in silhouette, asking “Which of you remembers it wrong?”
The Inquiry Given Flesh
Here, he is neither living nor dead but a sanctioned tutelary of The Bureau of Unassumed Truths. Known as The Origamist, he wanders minor ministries and long-vacant coast guard stations, folding birds from royal memos and watching whether they fly. He helps only those who admit they may be wrong, often appearing after public rituals have failed to reconcile. He might guide players through the Fog Filing System or offer sanctuary inside a shed marked “Pending Realities.”
- Manifestation Cost: To summon him, a player must sacrifice a past conviction.
- Weathering Side Effect: Prolonged presence may blur the line between memory and sanctioned narrative. Players must roll Recall to resist rewritten truths.