HomeGeneral Information - Vampires
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General Information - Vampires
Fireseed Wed Sep 05, 2012 11:18 am
This thread will be used to give general information about the races, factions, and mechanical rules for the World of Darkness.
I will be adding to this thread as time progresses.
If you're using this page to help you create a character sheet I suggest you use a second tab to reference this page.
I will be adding to this thread as time progresses.
If you're using this page to help you create a character sheet I suggest you use a second tab to reference this page.
Last edited by Fireseed on Wed Jan 09, 2013 9:09 pm; edited 1 time in total
Fireseed- Member
- Posts : 23
Join date : 2011-10-07
Mortals and Mechanics
Fireseed Wed Sep 05, 2012 11:23 am
Since mortals are the standard model by which all supernatural races branch, this section will include general information that impacts them all.
W.I.P.
---
Some mechanical language to start off with. As the Storyteller you can bend the rules and make generalizations, but when certain things take certain preset amounts of time it can be confusing to the players.
How long is a "turn"?
One turn is generalized to be about 3 seconds.
You can only perform one Instant action per turn and as many Reflexive actions as you can manage.
An Extended action takes multiple turns.
Okay so help me understand the difference between Instant, Reflexive, and Extended actions.
-An Instant[ action is generally something that requires motor control or mental concentration to accomplish, usually in the span of three seconds or less. Reloading a weapon, scrutinizing a scene, typing in a password, climbing up a flight of stairs, taking off your shirt, getting into a car, etc.
--Since an instant action is generally something that can take about three seconds to perform you only get one per "turn" if the need arises. The game is theoretically measured in a series of Instant actions.
-Before side tracking into Reflexive, I want to simply explain that an Extended action is any action that would take any amount of time greater than three seconds. Everything from investigating a crime scene to writing a report or channeling the spirits of the dead can be described as Extended actions. The exact length of time of an Extended action is variable.
-A Reflexive action is any action that takes less than three seconds or can be done without concentration. Some people, for instance, have the Quick Draw or Rapid Reload merits that indicate they have training drawing and reloading weapons rapidly; thus those actions are downgraded to Reflexive and they can do them in the same turn that they might fire the gun or while on the run. Talking is generally considered a Reflexive action as is walking your normal speed or less, breaking into a run would count as Instant.
--It is important to note that a Reflexive action can also technically be performed during someone else's turn and thus can often be done in reaction to something that other person did. It should be noted that this is not true in the case of all Reflexive actions, such as walking. You can only walk on your turn.
What do you mean by "lasts one scene"?
The World of Darkness rules are often divided into fairly arbitrary sets of time.
A Chronicle is the entirety of a story.
A Chapter is a large story arch within a story.
A Scene is a single point within a chapter. Scenes are a commonly used duration and can sound confusing, but if you just treat the narrative like a story you'll see it's fairly intuitive. Essentially anytime there is a significant transition in the story, a scene has passed (Think: "Confrontation Scene" > "Chase Scene" > "Showdown Scene")
And a Turn is a generally 3 second gap within a scene.
They also occasionally use the term "Session", but that isn't applicable to online roleplaying and will be ignored. If you find an action that is dependent on the "Session" rule consult the storyteller for clarity.
I do not want these little details to become an obsession for players on this site, so they will only be relevant during combat scenes. In such scenes try to visualize each post as taking about three seconds in real time, except in the case of extended actions where you can just wing it and I'll tell you if you get shot while you're hacking into the network or whatever.
Alright I've heard you talk about these Damage types, what's up with those?
Alright it's hard to explain it without a visual aid, but just hear me out on this. Instead of just a standard X/Y value health system, the World of Darkness uses Health Boxes.
If you have 7 health, then you have 7 health boxes. They get filled in from left to right, always and damage is additive as well as organized; if you took 2 Bashing and then 1 Lethal then another Bashing your health boxes would look like:
Lethal, Bashing, Bashing, Bashing, Empty, Empty, Empty.
Alright so...what about these damage types?
Ah, glad you asked. So there's three types of damage: Bashing, Lethal, and Aggravated.
-Bashing damage is generally considered to be non-lethal damage. Blunt force trauma is the most common form of Bashing damage, generally resulting from a fist or a baseball bat or even getting hit by a car (It should be noted that even though it "only does" Bashing damage, getting hit by a car usually does a LOT of it all at one time).
--If your last health box on the far right is filled with a Bashing damage, your character is knocked unconscious and will not wake back up until it is healed.
--A normal human heals one bashing damage naturally about every 15 minutes.
-Lethal damage is fairly self explanatory. Any kind of damage taken from something that cuts or penetrates the flesh is considered Lethal. Knives, gunshots, axes, etc.
--Lethal damage takes second priority after Bashing, so it will always be counted after Bashing is taken into consideration.
--If using a weapon that would normally do Bashing damage on an enemy whose health boxes are already filled with Bashing damage, then you automatically start upgrading those to Lethal. So if you knocked a guy out with your fists and kept wailing on him, you would eventually kill him.
--Once a character's last health box is filled with Lethal damage, they're (probably already) unconscious and start Bleeding Out, but aren't dead. Left to their own devices they might just make a recovery or bleed out and die.
--A normal human heals one Lethal damage in two days without assistance.
-Aggravated damage is the king of damage types. Aggravated damage is somewhat more open ended as to the sources; many supernatural powers inflict Aggravated damage, but things such as Chainsaws that mutilate as well as cut qualify as well. Sometimes certain sources of normally Lethal (or even Bashing) can instead to Aggravated if the storyteller deems it appropriate (example: getting caught in a grenade's blast radius vs throwing oneself onto a grenade to shield one's allies; the former does Lethal and the latter takes Aggravated).
--Aggravated damage is always counted last in the damage priorities.
--If a character's last health box is filled with Aggravated damage, it means that character is dead.
--Once a character's last health box is filled with Lethal damage, any kind of further damage converts lethal damage into Aggravated.
--Aggravated damage is generally the kind of damage that mutilates and maims people for life, leaving them scarred or disabled if severe enough.
--A normal human heals one aggravated damage every eight days.
--If deemed appropriate, a storyteller can decide that an injury is so traumatic that it permanently alters that character's stats in some say. This is generally only caused by aggravated damage, such as the loss of a limb or horrific scarring across the face or body.
Okay, that's a lot of information. Anything else?
Hmm....
Oh! Almost forgot about Wound Penalties.
Wound Penalties are easy enough to understand once you've wrapped your head around health boxes and damage types.
Essentially as soon as any type of damage is in one of your last four health boxes, you incur a wound penalty.
-There are three levels of wound penalties (-1, -2, and -3) and three health boxes that correlate with them.
-The penalty counts against all actions as long as it is in effect. Even when not in combat, the character should react accordingly to the severity of the damage done to their body in this way.
So here's what 7 health box guy's health boxes look like when taking Wound Penalties into account:
[ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ]
-0 -0 -0 -1 -2 -3 (x)
With the numeral value indicating what kind of wound penalties are applied when that health box has any damage in it and (x) represents the last health box. If (x) is filled, you're either unconscious, bleeding out, or dead.
W.I.P.
---
Some mechanical language to start off with. As the Storyteller you can bend the rules and make generalizations, but when certain things take certain preset amounts of time it can be confusing to the players.
How long is a "turn"?
One turn is generalized to be about 3 seconds.
You can only perform one Instant action per turn and as many Reflexive actions as you can manage.
An Extended action takes multiple turns.
Okay so help me understand the difference between Instant, Reflexive, and Extended actions.
-An Instant[ action is generally something that requires motor control or mental concentration to accomplish, usually in the span of three seconds or less. Reloading a weapon, scrutinizing a scene, typing in a password, climbing up a flight of stairs, taking off your shirt, getting into a car, etc.
--Since an instant action is generally something that can take about three seconds to perform you only get one per "turn" if the need arises. The game is theoretically measured in a series of Instant actions.
-Before side tracking into Reflexive, I want to simply explain that an Extended action is any action that would take any amount of time greater than three seconds. Everything from investigating a crime scene to writing a report or channeling the spirits of the dead can be described as Extended actions. The exact length of time of an Extended action is variable.
-A Reflexive action is any action that takes less than three seconds or can be done without concentration. Some people, for instance, have the Quick Draw or Rapid Reload merits that indicate they have training drawing and reloading weapons rapidly; thus those actions are downgraded to Reflexive and they can do them in the same turn that they might fire the gun or while on the run. Talking is generally considered a Reflexive action as is walking your normal speed or less, breaking into a run would count as Instant.
--It is important to note that a Reflexive action can also technically be performed during someone else's turn and thus can often be done in reaction to something that other person did. It should be noted that this is not true in the case of all Reflexive actions, such as walking. You can only walk on your turn.
What do you mean by "lasts one scene"?
The World of Darkness rules are often divided into fairly arbitrary sets of time.
A Chronicle is the entirety of a story.
A Chapter is a large story arch within a story.
A Scene is a single point within a chapter. Scenes are a commonly used duration and can sound confusing, but if you just treat the narrative like a story you'll see it's fairly intuitive. Essentially anytime there is a significant transition in the story, a scene has passed (Think: "Confrontation Scene" > "Chase Scene" > "Showdown Scene")
And a Turn is a generally 3 second gap within a scene.
They also occasionally use the term "Session", but that isn't applicable to online roleplaying and will be ignored. If you find an action that is dependent on the "Session" rule consult the storyteller for clarity.
I do not want these little details to become an obsession for players on this site, so they will only be relevant during combat scenes. In such scenes try to visualize each post as taking about three seconds in real time, except in the case of extended actions where you can just wing it and I'll tell you if you get shot while you're hacking into the network or whatever.
Alright I've heard you talk about these Damage types, what's up with those?
Alright it's hard to explain it without a visual aid, but just hear me out on this. Instead of just a standard X/Y value health system, the World of Darkness uses Health Boxes.
If you have 7 health, then you have 7 health boxes. They get filled in from left to right, always and damage is additive as well as organized; if you took 2 Bashing and then 1 Lethal then another Bashing your health boxes would look like:
Lethal, Bashing, Bashing, Bashing, Empty, Empty, Empty.
Alright so...what about these damage types?
Ah, glad you asked. So there's three types of damage: Bashing, Lethal, and Aggravated.
-Bashing damage is generally considered to be non-lethal damage. Blunt force trauma is the most common form of Bashing damage, generally resulting from a fist or a baseball bat or even getting hit by a car (It should be noted that even though it "only does" Bashing damage, getting hit by a car usually does a LOT of it all at one time).
--If your last health box on the far right is filled with a Bashing damage, your character is knocked unconscious and will not wake back up until it is healed.
--A normal human heals one bashing damage naturally about every 15 minutes.
-Lethal damage is fairly self explanatory. Any kind of damage taken from something that cuts or penetrates the flesh is considered Lethal. Knives, gunshots, axes, etc.
--Lethal damage takes second priority after Bashing, so it will always be counted after Bashing is taken into consideration.
--If using a weapon that would normally do Bashing damage on an enemy whose health boxes are already filled with Bashing damage, then you automatically start upgrading those to Lethal. So if you knocked a guy out with your fists and kept wailing on him, you would eventually kill him.
--Once a character's last health box is filled with Lethal damage, they're (probably already) unconscious and start Bleeding Out, but aren't dead. Left to their own devices they might just make a recovery or bleed out and die.
--A normal human heals one Lethal damage in two days without assistance.
-Aggravated damage is the king of damage types. Aggravated damage is somewhat more open ended as to the sources; many supernatural powers inflict Aggravated damage, but things such as Chainsaws that mutilate as well as cut qualify as well. Sometimes certain sources of normally Lethal (or even Bashing) can instead to Aggravated if the storyteller deems it appropriate (example: getting caught in a grenade's blast radius vs throwing oneself onto a grenade to shield one's allies; the former does Lethal and the latter takes Aggravated).
--Aggravated damage is always counted last in the damage priorities.
--If a character's last health box is filled with Aggravated damage, it means that character is dead.
--Once a character's last health box is filled with Lethal damage, any kind of further damage converts lethal damage into Aggravated.
--Aggravated damage is generally the kind of damage that mutilates and maims people for life, leaving them scarred or disabled if severe enough.
--A normal human heals one aggravated damage every eight days.
--If deemed appropriate, a storyteller can decide that an injury is so traumatic that it permanently alters that character's stats in some say. This is generally only caused by aggravated damage, such as the loss of a limb or horrific scarring across the face or body.
Okay, that's a lot of information. Anything else?
Hmm....
Oh! Almost forgot about Wound Penalties.
Wound Penalties are easy enough to understand once you've wrapped your head around health boxes and damage types.
Essentially as soon as any type of damage is in one of your last four health boxes, you incur a wound penalty.
-There are three levels of wound penalties (-1, -2, and -3) and three health boxes that correlate with them.
-The penalty counts against all actions as long as it is in effect. Even when not in combat, the character should react accordingly to the severity of the damage done to their body in this way.
So here's what 7 health box guy's health boxes look like when taking Wound Penalties into account:
[ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ]
-0 -0 -0 -1 -2 -3 (x)
With the numeral value indicating what kind of wound penalties are applied when that health box has any damage in it and (x) represents the last health box. If (x) is filled, you're either unconscious, bleeding out, or dead.
Last edited by Fireseed on Thu Sep 06, 2012 3:29 pm; edited 3 times in total
Fireseed- Member
- Posts : 23
Join date : 2011-10-07
Vampires
Fireseed Wed Sep 05, 2012 11:24 am
Rules and Nuances of the Vampiric Condition.
Remember: all vampires are subject to these unless otherwise specified.
---
Basic Rundown
-Vampires are Undead; corpses animated by Vitae and possessed of a seemingly demonic entity simply called The Beast.
-The vast majority of your organs are vestigial in nature. The heart, brain, muscles, bones, and sensory organs are all that a vampire needs to function in a meaningful way. Damage from Firearms or Electricity is downgraded to Bashing when used against a vampire.
-Vampires do not need to breathe. Or blink for that matter.
-Vampires suffer from a dulling of sensation. Things like touch, taste, pain, and sexual pleasure all still exist but are somehow ... less vivid than they once were. The vampire feels strangely detached from these sensations and often seeks to reignite them.
--So while a vampire can ignore considerable amounts of pain, they are not exempt to Wound Penalties.
--Feeding is one of the few sensations that can regularly get a rise out of a vampire and quickly trumps most other forms of physical pleasure.
-A vampire cannot be knocked out in the normal way that a human can through Bashing damage. Succumbing to Lethal damage results in an involuntary Torpor. A vampire is truly destroyed when their last healthbox is filled with Aggravated damage.
Classic Weaknesses
-Vampires are weak to Sunlight. Direct contact with sunlight results in automatic aggravated damage on a scale dependent upon the level of exposure.
-Vampires are weak to Fire. The vampire's body is surprisingly flammable and takes aggravated damage resulting from fire.
-A stake through the heart will not kill a vampire, but it will render them incapable of spending Vitae and send them into a special variety of Topor that lasts only as long as the stake remains in place. This is an effective tactic for paralyzing a vampire.
-Vampires are not weakened in any way by garlic, running water, symbols of faith, or other folklore involving grains of rice or asking of permission before entering a home.
--Certain Bloodlines do express these weaknesses, although rarely more than one at a time.
--Symbols of faith brandished by mortals with the True Faith trait can be used to deter, harm, or otherwise irritate a vampire. These mortals are exceedingly rare.
Clan
-Every vampire is Embraced into the Clan of their Sire.
-There are five known Clans in modern nights, although rumor and myth indicate that there have been several others in the past.
-The Clan structure is somewhat loosely familial in nature. Certain Clans have a natural inclination towards one Covenant or another, but they are not forced to do so and may rebel.
-Generally a Sire will Embrace somebody who already correlates with their personal beliefs or interests, thus reinforcing a familial trend within the Clan.
-Mechanically, a Clan provides a vampire with an affinity for three Disciplines and a clan weakness.
Covenant
-A political branch of the Danse Macabre.
-There are five Covenants widely available to most vampires.
-There are rumors of other Covenants of ill reputation in existence.
-Vampires without a Covenant are called Unaligned.
-Any vampire can be officially recognized as a member of a covenant without the Status (Covenant) merit, but will not receive any mechanical benefits until they put at least one point into it.
-Benefits of each covenant vary, but all are dependent on one's Status within it.
Blood Potency
-A generic term for the potency of a vampire's blood ranging from one to ten.
-If left to their own devices, a vampire's blood potency will increase by one about every twenty five years.
-Blood Potency can be increased manually by either expending exp or through Diablerie.
-Mechanically speaking, Blood Potency has a wide range of effects.
--It determines the total amount of Vitae you can have at one time.
--It determines the amount of Vitae you can expend per turn (about three seconds).
--It determines whether or not you're eligible to join a Bloodline, become an Avus for a bloodline, or even create one all on your own.
--Blood Potency is used to size each other up when two vampire's meet for the first time. This effect is called Predator's Taint.
--It determines what kind of blood a vampire may feed upon.
--Finally it allows a vampire to overcome their mortal frame's restrictions upon achieving a score of six or higher, resulting in the ability to raise attributes, skills, and disciplines above the standard cap of five.
Predator's Taint
-When two vampires meet for the very first time their Beasts size each other up and attempt to assert immediate dominance upon the stranger.
-This can result in a Frenzy by one or both vampires. The vampire with the lower blood potency generally experiences a Fear Frenzy and simply runs away. If the two vampires are equally matched, they may enter a battle Frenzy.
-This instinct can be suppressed by bribing one's Beast with a single Vitae. This effect lasts for one scene.
--Even bribed, the two beasts have taken measure of one another and give the vampire a general sense of there own standing with the other.
-It is considered extremely poor etiquette to succumb to this kind of Frenzy regardless of faction.
Vitae
-The mystical blood of a vampire.
-Any blood that a vampire feeds upon becomes Vitae, although as a vampire's blood potency rises the kind of blood that vampire can feed upon and convert to Vitae becomes narrower in scope.
-A vampire must spend one Vitae every night when they awaken from slumber.
-Vitae can be expended to rapidly heal a vampire's body, healing one bashing or lethal damage per point spent. Aggravated damage cannot be healed in this way.
-A vampire can temporarily boost one of their physical attributes (Strength, Dexterity, or Stamina) with Vitae. Mechanically they receive a +2 bonus to that attribute for one turn (about three seconds).
-Many Disciplines and Sorceries use Vitae as fuel.
-A vampire can expend Vitae to force it into their skin and emulate a living appearance, this is often called The Blush.
Feeding
-A vampire's fangs are normally retracted, although they are often noticeable as abnormally pronounced canines. Allowing the fangs to visibly come out does nothing mechanically, but can reveal the vampire's nature if they're not careful.
-A vampire cannot eat or drink normally. Doing so immediately results in a violent bodily reaction expelling said food or drink rather ungraciously. This can temporarily be suppressed using The Blush.
-A vampire's sense of taste is dulled by their condition, resulting in most food or drink having very little flavor. On the flip side, their taste for blood becomes exquisitely keen and forms its own wide series of dimensions and palettes.
-In order to feed a vampire must sink their fangs into the body of a living creature (or vampire) who contains blood.
-The victim must still be alive when this happens, the blood can only be transmuted into Vitae if it contains a spark of life from a living body.
-The human form is not conditioned to perform a biting action offensively, resulting in the need for a grapple with the victim before one can bite. You must first succeed in getting into position for a bite before you can instigate said bite.
-The experience of feeding is euphoric for both the vampire and the victim. This is called The Kiss.
-After feeding upon the victim a vampire can seal the wound by licking it clean, resulting in a nearly unidentifiable blemish where the skin was originally punctured. This effect is often called The Lick.
The Kiss
-The Kiss occurs when a vampire bites a mortal, resulting in a sudden surge of euphoria in the victim.
-This sensation usually causes the victim to enter a fugue-like state where they stop resisting and simply ride out the wave of pleasure. Later on the victim usually has a harder time remembering what happened exactly, resulting in fragmented and indistinct memory of the event.
-Some people misremember events, often resulting in false reports of mugging or rape, but some remember it well enough to seek out a vampire for another go. This is how a Herd is usually established.
The Blush
-Vampires normally do not blink, breath, or perform any other involuntary actions that are normal to living humans.
-A vampire can force themselves to blink or breath, however awkwardly it might have become for them, but they cannot regain the subtle involuntary microexpressions that people use between themselves on a daily basis.
-A vampire can, however, emulate a living appearance; with the expenditure of one Vitae the vampire forces blood into the skin and organs of their body. It lasts for one scene.
-This does very little mechanically, but it can be used to disguise themselves as a mortal if suspicions are raised about such things as the color of one's skin, the complete lack of a pulse, or their body's normal inability to warm itself.
-Using the Blush also allows a vampire to temporarily stomach normal food, although once the effect has worn off the vampire rather violently expels anything within their stomach in a mass of undigested material and blood.
-Using the Blush is also how you have sex. Unless, you know, your partner doesn't mind banging a cold, dead body that can't get it up.
Reflections and Images
-Vampires do have a difficult time with mirrors, there are many theories as to why this is but nothing conclusive.
-Anything that would normally give an image of the vampire (a mirror, digital camera, photograph, etc.) returns something fuzzy and indistinct as though it were out of focus or blurred somehow.
-This renders vampires unidentifiable to most modern identification technology. Paintings and other more manual reconstructions of the vampire's appearance are unimpeded.
-A vampire can temporarily suppress this effect by expending a willpower point, it lasts for one scene.
The Embrace
-Turning someone into a vampire is not an easy accident to perform. A simple bite will not do it, instead the victim must be drained of all or most of their blood in some manner and then fed a few drops of the vampire's Vitae.
-To complete the process, the vampire must expend a willpower dot (not point).
-This willpower dot can be repurchased for 8exp.
-The vampire in this situation is henceforth called the Sire and the recipient is called the Childe.
-The Sire and Childe (plural: Childer) automatically share a Blood Bond.
-Most embraces result in a fledgling vampire with a blood potency of one, but occasionally (especially if the sire is member to a Bloodline) a newly Embraced vampire starts with a blood potency of two or even three.
Bloodlines
-Bloodlines are deviations from a parent Clan, resulting in an evolution of the vampiric condition.
-Bloodlines are generally Clan-specific with very few expceptions.
-Mechanically a Bloodline gives a vampire one extra Discipline with which they have affinity and a second clan weakness. You may be a member of only one Bloodline at a time.
-Occasionally a Bloodline will also shuffle the parent Clan's disciplines, these are rare.
-To join a Bloodline a vampire must have a blood potency of two, which is represented in one of two ways.
--The vampire was sired by a member of the Bloodline and began play with a blood potency of two (with the expenditure of 3 merit points upon character creation).
--The vampire is adopted into the bloodline by an Avus.
-An Avus is a member of a bloodline with a blood potency of at least four. They can induct new members into a bloodline or even eject a member from the bloodline, neither option can be forced upon another vampire.
-A vampire without a bloodline can create an all new one upon achieving a blood potency of six and expending a willpower dot to undergo a transformation of their Curse into a new Bloodline. This dot can be repurchased for 8exp.
Torpor
-Torpor is the standard name for a number of states of dormancy that vampires can experience.
-A vampire in Torpor is only vaguely aware of their surroundings while slumbering and must succeed at resisting the effects of Torpor long enough to wake up even if directly touched or manipulated.
-A vampire in Torpor takes on a mummified countenance, appearing as a simply well preserved corpse to the mundane eye.
-Every day a vampire experiences a very minor form of Torpor that results in their bodies naturally wishing to rest, this effect ends at sunset and requires the expenditure of one Vitae to end. This form of Torpor restores the vampire's body to the state it was in upon being Embraced. This results in a fairly constant appearance for a vampire, who must expend a willpower dot to force their body to make a permanent change (such a growing new facial hair or preventing it from regrowing). This willpower can be repurchased for 8exp.
--Physical damage to the vampire's body is not healed in this way, although a vampire can expend Vitae to heal damage while slumbering.
---Aggravated damage can be healed in this way at a ratio of two vitae for each point of aggravated damage, this can only be performed once per day and often results in the vampire retreating for days at a time to repair their body.
-A vampire who has been staked through the heart enters a paralytic Torpor that lasts until the stake is removed.
-A vampire who receives excessive physical trauma will go into a catatonic Torpor that lasts for an amount of time dependent on the vampire's Humanity score, representing that vampire's ability to resist the Beast's influence.
-A vampire can voluntarily enter Torpor as well, allowing them to sleep away the ages as they see fit.
The Effects of Torpor
-Torpor has two primary effects upon a vampire: The Fog of Eternity and Thinning the Blood.
-The Fog of Eternity is a term coined for the nightmarish dream-like state of consciousness a vampire enters upon Torpor. Memories from both their mortal lives and undead existence intermingle and replay over and over again, often out of order or in ways that don't match up with reality. The experience is maddening and extremely confusing, resulting in many vampires writing a diary to help them piece back together the truth of their existence upon awakening. The results in an imperfect recollection of vampiric history, even by unusually honest elders who can simply no longer recollect what really happened centuries ago.
-As the ages pass the vampire's blood becomes more potent naturally, resulting in an increased blood potency every twenty five years or so. As their blood potency rises a vampire feels the call of Torpor more and more strongly until finally they submit to the Fog of Eternity, Thinning the Blood.
--Vampires who remain in Torpor for long periods of time (10+ years) will gradually lose their Blood Potency. It cannot drop below one.
Ghouls
-A vampire can create a Ghoul by feeding a mortal (or beast) at least one Vitae and expending a willpower point.
-This investment of willpower infuses the ghoul with power and allows them to utilize their temporary Vitae in many ways similar to a full fledged vampire.
--Ghouls can expend their Vitae to temporarily augment their physical attributes, heal themselves, and power Disciplines. A ghoul does not immediately have access to Disciplines and must learn them directly from a vampire in some way.
-Ghouls cannot replenish their Vitae as a vampire does and can only receive more from a vampire. Sometimes a desperate Ghoul will begin to hunt vampires down and forcefully drain the vitae from them, but this is rare.
-Ghouls generally suffer the condition known as Vinculum in respect to the vampire who feeds them, making them almost universally fanatically loyal to that vampire.
-Ghouls are traditionally treated as second class citizens in Kindred society or even property depending on the language of the reigning establishment.
-In order for a player to create a ghoul they much purchase the Retainer merit. Retainer indicates an individual who is both allied and subservient to your character, essentially a minion. It is rated from 1 to 5 and every point beyond the first (which simply identifies them as a ghoul) grants 10 exp to the ghoul. Ghouls start with only one point in Celerity, Resilience, or Vigor; in order to increase this or learn a new discipline they must learn it from a vampire who already has that discipline (of appropriate level or higher).
Blood Bond
-Arises and is expressed in a variety of ways, essentially a supernatural bond between one vampire and another entity.
-Most Disciplines receive a small bonus (+2 in most cases) when used against someone who shares a Blood Bond with that vampire.
-A vampire's Vitae has an inherently addictive property to it and risks developing a dependency if imbibed too often. After three separate events of drinking the same vampire's blood over a relatively short time (about a month), the subject enters a specific state called Vinculum and results in a Blood Bond as well.
-A Sire and Childe automatically experience the effect of being Blood Bound.
Vinculum
-When someone imbibes a vampire's blood three times over the course of a month, they risk a condition of addiction and servility.
-The victim becomes emotionally dependent upon the original vampire and find it difficult to resist their commands, even the completely mundane ones. This is not absolute control, but it is a potent effect.
-If an aggregate of vampire blood is created using Vitae from many different vampires, the vampire with the highest Blood Potency is considered to be the benefactor and all others will suffer Vinculum towards them.
-Vinculum can wear off naturally with time, generally a few months to a year, if the victim does not imbibe Vitae from that vampire.
-Vinculum immediately ends when the "benefiting" vampire dies.
Frenzy
-When the Beast takes manual control of the vampire's body and turns them into a raging animal.
-Mechanically a Frenzy results in a boost to that vampire's physical attributes (+2 to strength, dexterity, and stamina) for as long as the Frenzy is in effect. Wound Penalties are ignored while in Frenzy.
-Many kinds of Frenzies exist.
-Sudden exposure to bright light or proximity to fire can result in a Fear Frenzy where the vampire seeks desperately to get away.
-Excessive emotional trauma dependent on the vampire's Humanity score can result in a standard berserk Frenzy.
-Being low on Vitae can result in a Hunger Frenzy.
-A vampire can attempt a difficult aspect of the Frenzy called Ride the Wave when prompted. In this state the vampire retains control over their own actions while gaining the mechanical benefits of rage.
Diablerie, also known as Amaranth
-A vampire who feeds upon the last point of another vampire's vitae can proceed to devour their very soul as well.
-Upon doing so the vampire immediately gains skills and disciplines that the other vampire possessed as well as blood potency if it was higher than that of the other vampire.
-This is a violation of the Third Tradition, one of the three standard laws of etiquette that all vampire factions observe in one form or another. Sufficient evidence of violation to this can result in the immediate call of a Blood Hunt upon the accused.
-Devouring another vampire's soul has less social ramifications as well. The act itself is a surefire way of knocking down a character's Humanity score and the psychic backlash often gifts the diablerist when severe mental derangements.
-It also results in a change to the vampire's aura to those capable of seeing it. Black veins puncture through the aura in a very obvious and disturbing fashion. This effect lasts for about four years.
The Gradual Loss of Humanity
-The Humanity score is used as a general ballpark to measure how in or out of touch with your human origin you are.
--Thus vampires with a high humanity can remember more vividly what it meant to be human and can better emulate it, conversely vampires with a low humanity either can't remember or simply don't care enough to try.
-Humanity determines how well you can resist the Beast and reawaken after entering Torpor resulting from excessive damage.
-Humanity is used to help resist Frenzy.
-Humanity acts as a cap for social interactions when dealing with humans. A vampire's undead body forgets those oh so vital involuntary microexpressions that normal humans use every time they interact with one another. Even a vampire with a high Humanity score often forgets to wink, blush, incline one's head, glance away, or quirk the corner of their mouth every so slightly. While they can't quite put their finger on it, humans do pick up on this and are naturally turned off or somehow suspicious of the vampire.
--Mundane social interactions with humans is capped by your humanity score (if you have a Humanity of 7 and are trying to seduce someone without a Discipline, 7 is the maximum score you can use in that interaction).
--Vampires with low Humanity consistently find themselves relying on minions and mental disciplines when dealing with mortals.
-A vampire character starts with a Humanity score of seven by default, but can be traded for extra merit points at character creation at a rate of 1 Humanity for 2 Merit Points. This exchange can only occur at character creation and can only be used twice.
Violating a sin above one's Humanity score will not invoke a loss of Humanity.
A loss of Humanity can result in a mental derangement.
Humanity can be raised with the expenditure of exp.
If your Humanity score ever reaches 0, your character becomes a Draugr and is lost to the Beast. The character is effectively a permanently frenzied NPC under the control of the storyteller.
Those few saint-like vampires who achieve and maintain the lofty score of Humanity 10 receive additional benefits from their conquest of the Beast. In addition to the reward of simply having a score of 10, that vampire receives a passive bonus on all social interactions and attempts to resist the Beast's influence (mechanically a +2 bonus).
Remember: all vampires are subject to these unless otherwise specified.
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Basic Rundown
-Vampires are Undead; corpses animated by Vitae and possessed of a seemingly demonic entity simply called The Beast.
-The vast majority of your organs are vestigial in nature. The heart, brain, muscles, bones, and sensory organs are all that a vampire needs to function in a meaningful way. Damage from Firearms or Electricity is downgraded to Bashing when used against a vampire.
-Vampires do not need to breathe. Or blink for that matter.
-Vampires suffer from a dulling of sensation. Things like touch, taste, pain, and sexual pleasure all still exist but are somehow ... less vivid than they once were. The vampire feels strangely detached from these sensations and often seeks to reignite them.
--So while a vampire can ignore considerable amounts of pain, they are not exempt to Wound Penalties.
--Feeding is one of the few sensations that can regularly get a rise out of a vampire and quickly trumps most other forms of physical pleasure.
-A vampire cannot be knocked out in the normal way that a human can through Bashing damage. Succumbing to Lethal damage results in an involuntary Torpor. A vampire is truly destroyed when their last healthbox is filled with Aggravated damage.
Classic Weaknesses
-Vampires are weak to Sunlight. Direct contact with sunlight results in automatic aggravated damage on a scale dependent upon the level of exposure.
-Vampires are weak to Fire. The vampire's body is surprisingly flammable and takes aggravated damage resulting from fire.
-A stake through the heart will not kill a vampire, but it will render them incapable of spending Vitae and send them into a special variety of Topor that lasts only as long as the stake remains in place. This is an effective tactic for paralyzing a vampire.
-Vampires are not weakened in any way by garlic, running water, symbols of faith, or other folklore involving grains of rice or asking of permission before entering a home.
--Certain Bloodlines do express these weaknesses, although rarely more than one at a time.
--Symbols of faith brandished by mortals with the True Faith trait can be used to deter, harm, or otherwise irritate a vampire. These mortals are exceedingly rare.
Clan
-Every vampire is Embraced into the Clan of their Sire.
-There are five known Clans in modern nights, although rumor and myth indicate that there have been several others in the past.
-The Clan structure is somewhat loosely familial in nature. Certain Clans have a natural inclination towards one Covenant or another, but they are not forced to do so and may rebel.
-Generally a Sire will Embrace somebody who already correlates with their personal beliefs or interests, thus reinforcing a familial trend within the Clan.
-Mechanically, a Clan provides a vampire with an affinity for three Disciplines and a clan weakness.
Covenant
-A political branch of the Danse Macabre.
-There are five Covenants widely available to most vampires.
-There are rumors of other Covenants of ill reputation in existence.
-Vampires without a Covenant are called Unaligned.
-Any vampire can be officially recognized as a member of a covenant without the Status (Covenant) merit, but will not receive any mechanical benefits until they put at least one point into it.
-Benefits of each covenant vary, but all are dependent on one's Status within it.
Blood Potency
-A generic term for the potency of a vampire's blood ranging from one to ten.
-If left to their own devices, a vampire's blood potency will increase by one about every twenty five years.
-Blood Potency can be increased manually by either expending exp or through Diablerie.
-Mechanically speaking, Blood Potency has a wide range of effects.
--It determines the total amount of Vitae you can have at one time.
--It determines the amount of Vitae you can expend per turn (about three seconds).
--It determines whether or not you're eligible to join a Bloodline, become an Avus for a bloodline, or even create one all on your own.
--Blood Potency is used to size each other up when two vampire's meet for the first time. This effect is called Predator's Taint.
--It determines what kind of blood a vampire may feed upon.
--Finally it allows a vampire to overcome their mortal frame's restrictions upon achieving a score of six or higher, resulting in the ability to raise attributes, skills, and disciplines above the standard cap of five.
Predator's Taint
-When two vampires meet for the very first time their Beasts size each other up and attempt to assert immediate dominance upon the stranger.
-This can result in a Frenzy by one or both vampires. The vampire with the lower blood potency generally experiences a Fear Frenzy and simply runs away. If the two vampires are equally matched, they may enter a battle Frenzy.
-This instinct can be suppressed by bribing one's Beast with a single Vitae. This effect lasts for one scene.
--Even bribed, the two beasts have taken measure of one another and give the vampire a general sense of there own standing with the other.
-It is considered extremely poor etiquette to succumb to this kind of Frenzy regardless of faction.
Vitae
-The mystical blood of a vampire.
-Any blood that a vampire feeds upon becomes Vitae, although as a vampire's blood potency rises the kind of blood that vampire can feed upon and convert to Vitae becomes narrower in scope.
-A vampire must spend one Vitae every night when they awaken from slumber.
-Vitae can be expended to rapidly heal a vampire's body, healing one bashing or lethal damage per point spent. Aggravated damage cannot be healed in this way.
-A vampire can temporarily boost one of their physical attributes (Strength, Dexterity, or Stamina) with Vitae. Mechanically they receive a +2 bonus to that attribute for one turn (about three seconds).
-Many Disciplines and Sorceries use Vitae as fuel.
-A vampire can expend Vitae to force it into their skin and emulate a living appearance, this is often called The Blush.
Feeding
-A vampire's fangs are normally retracted, although they are often noticeable as abnormally pronounced canines. Allowing the fangs to visibly come out does nothing mechanically, but can reveal the vampire's nature if they're not careful.
-A vampire cannot eat or drink normally. Doing so immediately results in a violent bodily reaction expelling said food or drink rather ungraciously. This can temporarily be suppressed using The Blush.
-A vampire's sense of taste is dulled by their condition, resulting in most food or drink having very little flavor. On the flip side, their taste for blood becomes exquisitely keen and forms its own wide series of dimensions and palettes.
-In order to feed a vampire must sink their fangs into the body of a living creature (or vampire) who contains blood.
-The victim must still be alive when this happens, the blood can only be transmuted into Vitae if it contains a spark of life from a living body.
-The human form is not conditioned to perform a biting action offensively, resulting in the need for a grapple with the victim before one can bite. You must first succeed in getting into position for a bite before you can instigate said bite.
-The experience of feeding is euphoric for both the vampire and the victim. This is called The Kiss.
-After feeding upon the victim a vampire can seal the wound by licking it clean, resulting in a nearly unidentifiable blemish where the skin was originally punctured. This effect is often called The Lick.
The Kiss
-The Kiss occurs when a vampire bites a mortal, resulting in a sudden surge of euphoria in the victim.
-This sensation usually causes the victim to enter a fugue-like state where they stop resisting and simply ride out the wave of pleasure. Later on the victim usually has a harder time remembering what happened exactly, resulting in fragmented and indistinct memory of the event.
-Some people misremember events, often resulting in false reports of mugging or rape, but some remember it well enough to seek out a vampire for another go. This is how a Herd is usually established.
The Blush
-Vampires normally do not blink, breath, or perform any other involuntary actions that are normal to living humans.
-A vampire can force themselves to blink or breath, however awkwardly it might have become for them, but they cannot regain the subtle involuntary microexpressions that people use between themselves on a daily basis.
-A vampire can, however, emulate a living appearance; with the expenditure of one Vitae the vampire forces blood into the skin and organs of their body. It lasts for one scene.
-This does very little mechanically, but it can be used to disguise themselves as a mortal if suspicions are raised about such things as the color of one's skin, the complete lack of a pulse, or their body's normal inability to warm itself.
-Using the Blush also allows a vampire to temporarily stomach normal food, although once the effect has worn off the vampire rather violently expels anything within their stomach in a mass of undigested material and blood.
-Using the Blush is also how you have sex. Unless, you know, your partner doesn't mind banging a cold, dead body that can't get it up.
Reflections and Images
-Vampires do have a difficult time with mirrors, there are many theories as to why this is but nothing conclusive.
-Anything that would normally give an image of the vampire (a mirror, digital camera, photograph, etc.) returns something fuzzy and indistinct as though it were out of focus or blurred somehow.
-This renders vampires unidentifiable to most modern identification technology. Paintings and other more manual reconstructions of the vampire's appearance are unimpeded.
-A vampire can temporarily suppress this effect by expending a willpower point, it lasts for one scene.
The Embrace
-Turning someone into a vampire is not an easy accident to perform. A simple bite will not do it, instead the victim must be drained of all or most of their blood in some manner and then fed a few drops of the vampire's Vitae.
-To complete the process, the vampire must expend a willpower dot (not point).
-This willpower dot can be repurchased for 8exp.
-The vampire in this situation is henceforth called the Sire and the recipient is called the Childe.
-The Sire and Childe (plural: Childer) automatically share a Blood Bond.
-Most embraces result in a fledgling vampire with a blood potency of one, but occasionally (especially if the sire is member to a Bloodline) a newly Embraced vampire starts with a blood potency of two or even three.
Bloodlines
-Bloodlines are deviations from a parent Clan, resulting in an evolution of the vampiric condition.
-Bloodlines are generally Clan-specific with very few expceptions.
-Mechanically a Bloodline gives a vampire one extra Discipline with which they have affinity and a second clan weakness. You may be a member of only one Bloodline at a time.
-Occasionally a Bloodline will also shuffle the parent Clan's disciplines, these are rare.
-To join a Bloodline a vampire must have a blood potency of two, which is represented in one of two ways.
--The vampire was sired by a member of the Bloodline and began play with a blood potency of two (with the expenditure of 3 merit points upon character creation).
--The vampire is adopted into the bloodline by an Avus.
-An Avus is a member of a bloodline with a blood potency of at least four. They can induct new members into a bloodline or even eject a member from the bloodline, neither option can be forced upon another vampire.
-A vampire without a bloodline can create an all new one upon achieving a blood potency of six and expending a willpower dot to undergo a transformation of their Curse into a new Bloodline. This dot can be repurchased for 8exp.
Torpor
-Torpor is the standard name for a number of states of dormancy that vampires can experience.
-A vampire in Torpor is only vaguely aware of their surroundings while slumbering and must succeed at resisting the effects of Torpor long enough to wake up even if directly touched or manipulated.
-A vampire in Torpor takes on a mummified countenance, appearing as a simply well preserved corpse to the mundane eye.
-Every day a vampire experiences a very minor form of Torpor that results in their bodies naturally wishing to rest, this effect ends at sunset and requires the expenditure of one Vitae to end. This form of Torpor restores the vampire's body to the state it was in upon being Embraced. This results in a fairly constant appearance for a vampire, who must expend a willpower dot to force their body to make a permanent change (such a growing new facial hair or preventing it from regrowing). This willpower can be repurchased for 8exp.
--Physical damage to the vampire's body is not healed in this way, although a vampire can expend Vitae to heal damage while slumbering.
---Aggravated damage can be healed in this way at a ratio of two vitae for each point of aggravated damage, this can only be performed once per day and often results in the vampire retreating for days at a time to repair their body.
-A vampire who has been staked through the heart enters a paralytic Torpor that lasts until the stake is removed.
-A vampire who receives excessive physical trauma will go into a catatonic Torpor that lasts for an amount of time dependent on the vampire's Humanity score, representing that vampire's ability to resist the Beast's influence.
-A vampire can voluntarily enter Torpor as well, allowing them to sleep away the ages as they see fit.
The Effects of Torpor
-Torpor has two primary effects upon a vampire: The Fog of Eternity and Thinning the Blood.
-The Fog of Eternity is a term coined for the nightmarish dream-like state of consciousness a vampire enters upon Torpor. Memories from both their mortal lives and undead existence intermingle and replay over and over again, often out of order or in ways that don't match up with reality. The experience is maddening and extremely confusing, resulting in many vampires writing a diary to help them piece back together the truth of their existence upon awakening. The results in an imperfect recollection of vampiric history, even by unusually honest elders who can simply no longer recollect what really happened centuries ago.
-As the ages pass the vampire's blood becomes more potent naturally, resulting in an increased blood potency every twenty five years or so. As their blood potency rises a vampire feels the call of Torpor more and more strongly until finally they submit to the Fog of Eternity, Thinning the Blood.
--Vampires who remain in Torpor for long periods of time (10+ years) will gradually lose their Blood Potency. It cannot drop below one.
Ghouls
-A vampire can create a Ghoul by feeding a mortal (or beast) at least one Vitae and expending a willpower point.
-This investment of willpower infuses the ghoul with power and allows them to utilize their temporary Vitae in many ways similar to a full fledged vampire.
--Ghouls can expend their Vitae to temporarily augment their physical attributes, heal themselves, and power Disciplines. A ghoul does not immediately have access to Disciplines and must learn them directly from a vampire in some way.
-Ghouls cannot replenish their Vitae as a vampire does and can only receive more from a vampire. Sometimes a desperate Ghoul will begin to hunt vampires down and forcefully drain the vitae from them, but this is rare.
-Ghouls generally suffer the condition known as Vinculum in respect to the vampire who feeds them, making them almost universally fanatically loyal to that vampire.
-Ghouls are traditionally treated as second class citizens in Kindred society or even property depending on the language of the reigning establishment.
-In order for a player to create a ghoul they much purchase the Retainer merit. Retainer indicates an individual who is both allied and subservient to your character, essentially a minion. It is rated from 1 to 5 and every point beyond the first (which simply identifies them as a ghoul) grants 10 exp to the ghoul. Ghouls start with only one point in Celerity, Resilience, or Vigor; in order to increase this or learn a new discipline they must learn it from a vampire who already has that discipline (of appropriate level or higher).
Blood Bond
-Arises and is expressed in a variety of ways, essentially a supernatural bond between one vampire and another entity.
-Most Disciplines receive a small bonus (+2 in most cases) when used against someone who shares a Blood Bond with that vampire.
-A vampire's Vitae has an inherently addictive property to it and risks developing a dependency if imbibed too often. After three separate events of drinking the same vampire's blood over a relatively short time (about a month), the subject enters a specific state called Vinculum and results in a Blood Bond as well.
-A Sire and Childe automatically experience the effect of being Blood Bound.
Vinculum
-When someone imbibes a vampire's blood three times over the course of a month, they risk a condition of addiction and servility.
-The victim becomes emotionally dependent upon the original vampire and find it difficult to resist their commands, even the completely mundane ones. This is not absolute control, but it is a potent effect.
-If an aggregate of vampire blood is created using Vitae from many different vampires, the vampire with the highest Blood Potency is considered to be the benefactor and all others will suffer Vinculum towards them.
-Vinculum can wear off naturally with time, generally a few months to a year, if the victim does not imbibe Vitae from that vampire.
-Vinculum immediately ends when the "benefiting" vampire dies.
Frenzy
-When the Beast takes manual control of the vampire's body and turns them into a raging animal.
-Mechanically a Frenzy results in a boost to that vampire's physical attributes (+2 to strength, dexterity, and stamina) for as long as the Frenzy is in effect. Wound Penalties are ignored while in Frenzy.
-Many kinds of Frenzies exist.
-Sudden exposure to bright light or proximity to fire can result in a Fear Frenzy where the vampire seeks desperately to get away.
-Excessive emotional trauma dependent on the vampire's Humanity score can result in a standard berserk Frenzy.
-Being low on Vitae can result in a Hunger Frenzy.
-A vampire can attempt a difficult aspect of the Frenzy called Ride the Wave when prompted. In this state the vampire retains control over their own actions while gaining the mechanical benefits of rage.
Diablerie, also known as Amaranth
-A vampire who feeds upon the last point of another vampire's vitae can proceed to devour their very soul as well.
-Upon doing so the vampire immediately gains skills and disciplines that the other vampire possessed as well as blood potency if it was higher than that of the other vampire.
-This is a violation of the Third Tradition, one of the three standard laws of etiquette that all vampire factions observe in one form or another. Sufficient evidence of violation to this can result in the immediate call of a Blood Hunt upon the accused.
-Devouring another vampire's soul has less social ramifications as well. The act itself is a surefire way of knocking down a character's Humanity score and the psychic backlash often gifts the diablerist when severe mental derangements.
-It also results in a change to the vampire's aura to those capable of seeing it. Black veins puncture through the aura in a very obvious and disturbing fashion. This effect lasts for about four years.
The Gradual Loss of Humanity
-The Humanity score is used as a general ballpark to measure how in or out of touch with your human origin you are.
--Thus vampires with a high humanity can remember more vividly what it meant to be human and can better emulate it, conversely vampires with a low humanity either can't remember or simply don't care enough to try.
-Humanity determines how well you can resist the Beast and reawaken after entering Torpor resulting from excessive damage.
-Humanity is used to help resist Frenzy.
-Humanity acts as a cap for social interactions when dealing with humans. A vampire's undead body forgets those oh so vital involuntary microexpressions that normal humans use every time they interact with one another. Even a vampire with a high Humanity score often forgets to wink, blush, incline one's head, glance away, or quirk the corner of their mouth every so slightly. While they can't quite put their finger on it, humans do pick up on this and are naturally turned off or somehow suspicious of the vampire.
--Mundane social interactions with humans is capped by your humanity score (if you have a Humanity of 7 and are trying to seduce someone without a Discipline, 7 is the maximum score you can use in that interaction).
--Vampires with low Humanity consistently find themselves relying on minions and mental disciplines when dealing with mortals.
-A vampire character starts with a Humanity score of seven by default, but can be traded for extra merit points at character creation at a rate of 1 Humanity for 2 Merit Points. This exchange can only occur at character creation and can only be used twice.
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Violating a Sin against Humanity at your level or below you can result in the loss of one's Humanity. Violating a sin above one's Humanity score will not invoke a loss of Humanity.
A loss of Humanity can result in a mental derangement.
Humanity can be raised with the expenditure of exp.
If your Humanity score ever reaches 0, your character becomes a Draugr and is lost to the Beast. The character is effectively a permanently frenzied NPC under the control of the storyteller.
Those few saint-like vampires who achieve and maintain the lofty score of Humanity 10 receive additional benefits from their conquest of the Beast. In addition to the reward of simply having a score of 10, that vampire receives a passive bonus on all social interactions and attempts to resist the Beast's influence (mechanically a +2 bonus).
Fireseed- Member
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