Guaranteed to fail. Found at the back of the Invisible Clergy with a Kick Me sign on his back.

The Born Loser is a failure. What he tries doesn’t work, what he likes isn’t interesting, and what he does isn’t good. Bad things happen to him for no reason.

In some sense, the Born Loser serves a similar function as the Martyr. The Born Loser makes others feel comfort. This aspect of the Born Loser is often called The Mask of Tragedy.

TABOO: A Born Loser must never lose hope. If his optimism ever ends, or if the born loser doesn’t walk into each new day with expectations of a better world, then taboo is violated.

Also, things go wrong for the Born Loser. That’s just how it is. There’s no exact mechanic for this – GMs are simply encouraged to be sadistic.

SUSPECTED AVATARS IN HISTORY: Greek mythology has quite a few: Oedipus, possibly Odysseus. Andrew Johnson may have been one. Mostly, though, Born Losers don’t become famous, except possibly for their tremendous failures.

MASKS: Perhaps Odin could be considered a mask of the Born Loser – after all, he sacrificed his eye to get wisdom, only to find out that it was only bad wisdom. The Biblical Job is a fine example of this Archetype.

SYMBOLS: A mask of tragedy. Signs saying “WILL WORK FOR FOOD.” Awkward or ill-fitting clothing. Pink slips, parking tickets and termination notices. Broken mirrors. Anvils dropped on the head. Toilet paper or bubble gum stuck to the shoe. Acne and bee stings. Mud puddles and rain clouds.

CHANNELS:
1-50% The Born Loser gets trouble. Any time someone else is attacked in the presence of the Born Loser, the Born Loser can make an Avatar skill roll. If successful, the Born Loser is harmed instead. This can apply to physical attacks, blasts, curses, or any other attack that has an immediate single target, but not to verbal assault, rumors, or the like.

51-70% Compared to the Born Loser, other people are in good shape. Whether intentionally or not, the Born Loser can describe or demonstrate her problems, and make other people feel better about themselves. By making an Avatar check, the Born Loser can cheer others up. On a matched success, the Born Loser can erase a Failed notch from the person she’s trying to help.

71-90% The Born Loser can actually attract any kind of tragedy. By making an Avatar skill check, he can absorb anyone else’s bad luck. For instance, the Born Loser could take on the arrest warrant of a wanted man, or cure wounds or disease (by gaining them himself), or get someone out of an unhappy marriage by entering it himself. Memories and history will temporarily change to match this change. This will last a number of days equal to the successful roll.

91-98% At this level, the Born Loser takes on a miserable immortality. She will still age, and can be injured, catch diseases, and so forth, but will never die except by suicide. The Born Loser can make an Avatar skill roll to stay alive when death would be inevitable. She could survive being at ground zero of a bomb, though she would probably lose all of her limbs – and, as it so happens, her insurance would most likely have been cancelled the day before due to a filing error.