Merits are special capabilities or knacks that add individuality to your character. They’re purchased during character creation or with experience points over the course of your chronicle.
The Merits in this chapter are organized alphabetically into three broad categories: Physical, Mental and Social. Some apply to your character’s basic traits to enhance them in particular situations. Some have prerequisites that must be met before they can be purchased. For example, a character with the Gunslinger Merit must have a Dexterity of 3 and Firearms of 3 or higher to be able to accurately fire two weapons at the same time. By the same token, some Merits apply drawbacks that balance out their inherent advantages. A character with the Fame Merit, for example, is treated like a star wherever he goes — but has a hard time blending into the crowd when he wants to.
Each Merit has a number of dots (•) associated with it. These dots represent the number of points that must be spent to purchase the Merit. Some Merits allow for a range of dots (say, • to •••). These allow you to purchase a low rating if it’s appropriate to your character concept, or you can start with a low level and increase it over time with experience points.
A character is born with some Merits or develops them early in life, while others can be acquired through trail and error, training and effort later in life.
The first kind can be acquired at character creation only and are labeled as such. The second kind can be acquired during play with experience points.
Merit dots must be purchased sequentially with experience points. You have to buy • and then •• before your character can have ••• or more.
Prerequisite: one or more tiers of Coils
A crucible, in the jargon of the Ordo Dracul, is a Wyrm’s Nest with a spiritual atmosphere that facilitates the personal awareness and philosophical growth necessary to learn new tiers of the Coils of the Dragon. Not all Dragons are sensitive to the effects of a crucible, however. Fortunately, the covenant’s Masters of the Coils are able to train Kindred to appreciate the subtle effects that crucibles have on the blood and body of a vampire. Some Dragons describe the sensation of being affected by a crucible’s energy as “being washed” or “floating back and forth on a river.” Others say the they feel the influence of a crucible “in the curse.”
A character with this Merit is able to make use of the effects tied to a crucible. In most cases, a crucible reduces the cost of purchasing a new tier in a particular Coil of the Dragon by three experience points. Other crucible effects are possible at unique crucibles, as the Storyteller sees fit. All crucibles require some action on the part of the character to “tune in” to the energy of the site. Often, this requires meditation, but some crucibles may require the character to participate in ritual combat, to walk a particular path through the Wyrm’s Nest, to sketch or paint the area or to slumber in its soil.
For more on Wyrm’s Nests and crucibles, see p. 40.
To make use of the spiritual powers contained in the Wyrm’s Nests called wellheads or fontal nests, a Dragon must know an arcane ritual capable of harnessing and channeling that power into a medium suitable for vampires: blood. Before a vampire can learn those abstruse rituals, however, she must be trained in the ways of blood attunement and ritual memorization. Learning rituals is demanding — it requires the Dragon to develop a sort of psychic muscle memory for the words, behaviors and acts of will necessary to invoke a ritual’s power. But before the Dragon can “train her blood” to perform a ritual, she must learn how to learn, in a sense.
A character with this Merit can purchase and perform fontal rituals (described on p. 209). In addition, this Merit grants the character a +2 bonus on Wits-based dice pools to investigate or locate nearby fontal nests. This Merit grants no bonus on dice pool for mystic extrapolation, but does aid in dousing (see p. 42).
Many Dragons within the Order are fascinated with geomancy — the magic of locations and spatial arrangements. While the Order’s version of geomancy borrows heavily from traditional feng shui and the European study of ley lines, their long spans of study (and their undead patience) have taken it in some unique directions.
Characters with this Merit have a carefully maintained space that enhances good fortune on actions performed within it. This “fortune” takes the form of a dice pool bonus on rolls involving a specific trait. For instance, a library might be arranged to grant a +2 bonus on Intelligence dice pools, while a ceremonial chamber might be altered to provide a +1 bonus on dice pools based on Presence. These bonuses only apply to actions taken inside the space.
This Merit works somewhat like the Haven Merit, and can even be combined with it. Geomantic Nexus is actually two interconnected Merits. Geomantic Nexus Size defines the size of the nexus (from • to •••••), using the same scale as the Haven Merit (reprinted here for your convenience). Geomantic Nexus Potency defines the potency of the nexus (from • to •••). If your character already has a space defined with the Haven Merit, she can apply the Geomantic Nexus Potency Merit directly to that space without “buying it again.” Thus, your character can even add a geomantic effect to a shared haven or to someone else’s haven.
• A small apartment, a suite or a shop; 1-2 rooms
•• A large apartment or small home; 3-4 rooms
••• A small warehouse, a church or a large home; 5-8 rooms
•••• A mansion, a warehouse or a medium-sized office building; 9-15 rooms
••••• A sprawling estate or several floors of a tall building; 16+ rooms
Each dot purchased in Geomantic Nexus Potency adds a +1 bonus to dice pools based on a single Attribute. The Attribute a space affects cannot be changed, but it can be replaced by purchasing this Merit again. A space can only be affected by one instance of the Geomantic Nexus Potency Merit. Therefore, a given space can be aligned with only one Attribute.
Example: Victor already has three dots in the Haven Size Merit when he buys his third dot in the Occult Skill and becomes eligible to purchase the Geomantic Nexus Merit. Rather than creating his geomantic nexus somewhere outside his haven, Victor chooses to buy two dots in Geomantic Nexus for his haven. Victor’s player spends only the experience points necessary to buy Geomantic Nexus Potency ••, and chooses to align his nexus with Wits — Victor doesn’t want to be surprised in his sleep.
This Merit presumes that your character has regular access to the space in question and is able to perform regular geomantic maintenance on it. Your character doesn’t have to own the space or be in charge of it, she just needs regular access to it.
The time requirements of geomantic maintenance depend on the size of the space and the size of the bonus. A good rule of thumb is that a space requires about one hour of mystic adjustment and careful alignment every month for every room that grants the bonus. In many cases, this maintenance time won’t be important, but in some stories, time is a factor. Either a whole space is successfully maintained, or it’s not. Two hours of work on a mansion that normally requires 10 hours of geomantic upkeep aren’t sufficient to maintain the bonus in two rooms, for example. The mystic alignment of the whole space must be correct, or there is no bonus. If a space goes untended for one month, its geomantic effects are suspended. To restore the bonus, your character must dedicate sufficient hours to maintenance for the month; it’s not necessary to purchase this Merit again unless you want to adjust the geomantic state of a whole new space.
Note that one aligned site can’t exist inside a larger one. It’s not possible to have a +1 bonus to Manipulation dice pools in the bedroom and a +3 bonus to Presence dice pools everywhere else in the house, for example.
Disrupting a positive arrangement isn’t too hard: change enough elements and the balance is ruined. Trashing a room, repainting a house, tearing out the grove of Spanish moss-draped cypress trees on the estate — all these things can disrupt positive geomancy. Generally speaking, a roll isn’t even required as long as destruction is occurring. It’s up to the Storyteller’s judgment when enough damage has been done, but in no event is it possible to mess up a good vibe and have the Dragon who maintains it fail to notice.
Through rigorous training — everything from mnemonic tricks and psychological concepts like “memory palaces” to ruthless conditioning in which Auspex or Dominate are used to torment the student whenever her mind wanders from the desired concentration — your character gains a phenomenal memory. Mind of the Devouring Worm functions just like Eidetic Memory, except that it can only be purchased after character creation.
Your character’s mental restraint is now so formidable that she can foil attempts to read her mind by splitting her consciousness in two and directing the telepathic force into a closed loop of thought. Your character enjoys bonuses when opposing or resisting supernatural mental influences (such as Dominate) as though she had spent a Willpower point to add three dice to her dice pool or raise her resistance trait by two.
The nature of the thought-loop varies from Dragon to Dragon. Some have elaborate, circular interior monologues, often rehearsed to be misleading or confusing. Others repeat memorized statistics, recite ancient Javanese vocabulary or make use of disturbingly elaborate dismemberment visualizations. On the other hand, repeating a mantra (something simple like “Fuck you, you can’t read my mind”) ad infinitum can also work, and may even provoke a reaction in the would-be mind reader.
Drawback: This mental advantage can be brought into play with a reflexive action and “kept on” indefinitely. As long as your character is benefiting from this Merit’s bonus, however, she suffers a –2 penalty on all dice pools using her Intelligence.
Once your character has developed incredible memory skills with Mind of the Devouring Worm, she can use them to double-check her own perceptions for evidence of external tampering. By using Mind of the Unblinking Serpent, she essentially compares “mental snapshots” from her memories — even of the recent past — to look for recollections that don’t quite “line up.” This mental exercise is also useful for picking out small discrepancies within remembered events. Disjointed or distorted memories are of particular concern.
In game terms, this power helps your character determine when Obfuscate has been used (or is being used) or when Dominate has been applied to suppress or alter her memories. When the character consciously decides to scrutinize her memories with Mind of the Devouring Worm, she’s allowed an Intelligence + Composure roll. If she succeeds — and a Discipline was used to edit her memories or alter her perceptions — she notices that something is not quite right. That’s all. It does not penetrate or dispel the illusions of either Discipline, but it can be enough to spark an investigation or inspire new efforts to protect her invaded privacy.