Some Traits?

Ok so I just recently bought the Burning Empires book from Luke at Icon last weekend and I am trying to figure out the traits. I am making a Human Anvil guy. One of the traits he gets is FUGAZI. I have no idea what it means. Plus why do only some of the traits have descriptions. Not all of them do. Thanks for any help.

Character traits are intended to be interpreted by the player.

I have a couple players who treat FUGAZI like post-traumatic stress disorder.

p.

See pp. 246-247 of the brick.

More wonders of Wikipedia:

A slang version of “Fugacious” derived from Latin fugax, fugac-, meaning “ready to flee, flying; hence, fleeting, transitory”
This resulted in the backronym “Fucked Up, Got Ambushed, Zipped In”, a U.S. Army slang from the Vietnam war era, meaning chaotic, out-of-control fighting, especially in jungle warfare. Used as in a soldier fucked up, got ambushed and zipped into a body bag.

It’s one of the peculiar aspects of the BW system that says, “Well, what do you guys think it means?” Drove one of my guys crazy until he realized it was up to him/us to interpret.

As to why some traits have descriptions… There are two kinds of described traits: Call-on/die traits, and traits with an Iron Empires-specific meaning. If there’s no description, it means the trait should be understandable based on other sources (for instance, a knowledge of Vietnam War slang). In some cases, though, those sources betray Luke’s wide-ranging interests and fearsome literacy, so . Try dictionaries, wikipedia, google. If that doesn’t help, ask here.

My favourite is REMF in the second trait position of the Hammer Lord LP. If you are a Hammer Lord for 18 years without getting Forged, it must be because your are a REMF! :wink:

Aw, someone noticed!

:slight_smile:

I also like the Maelcum trait for Kerrn Tuug; I assume that a mandatory passion for slow repetitive bass-heavy music is part of this as well?

A bit more seriously though: I was wondering if there was a reason behind the lack of an “Officer” trait for Anvil? Do only Hammer officers have the espirt de corps necessary?