Merits

Something is off-kilter in your undead state. The physical stasis that marks the Kindred is grossly deficient in you. When you’re injured and heal, rather than return to your eternal state, your body grows thick lumpy scars.

Serious injury like burns over wide areas of your body transforms whole sections of flesh into calloused cracked scar tissue. Over time, this dense tissue has formed across enough of your body to act as armor. Each dot in Armor of Scars grants 1 point of Armor that works equally well against all forms of attack.

Drawback:
The scars that protect you also make you hideous and gross. You have the Deformity Flaw as described on p. 209 of the World of Darkness core book, but the penalty is equal to your rating in Armor of Scars. The scars also reduce your sense of touch, imposing a penalty equal to the rating on such rolls.

Prerequisite: Cannot have dots in Good Breeding. Only certain bloodlines and clans in the city qualify as “ill bred” for the purposes of this Merit, but the precise identity of the scorned varies from city to city. The Storyteller has final say on what clans or bloodlines make a character eligible for this Merit in the local city.

Your character is part of a bloodline or family line regarded as brutish, crass, pedestrian, dirty, or otherwise ignoble to Ventrue tastes (and the customs they promote throughout Kindred society). This peculiar counterpart to the Good Breeding Merit carries with it a distinct negative connotation to those Lords who concern themselves with ancestry and parentage, but that negativity is subjective – this trait is still a Merit, after all.

This Merit represents your character’s ability to use traditional preconceptions of his social worth to his own advantage. As scum, your character can get away with rudeness that would not be tolerated from a more civil monster. It isn’t considered crass or shameful for your character to be seen in the presence of prostitutes or common hoods. Your character may be able to admit (or fake) a degree of ignorance without losing face, because, after all, how would a Kindred of such poor breeding know anything about the Bishop’s plans for the city?

In game terms, this Merit grants a bonus to Social dice pools when, at the Storyteller’s discretion, the reputation of your character, his sire, his clan, or his bloodline influences the Kindred or ghoul he is trying to affect. You may choose to invoke a bonus up to the number of dots your character has in this Merit, depending on how aggressively your character takes advantage of other’s preconceptions. Remember, though, that this is a Social Merit – a white-trash reputation doesn’t actually grant your character any special knowledge or training with cars or guns.

The bonus from this Merit is useful only against characters who care about lineage, reputation, and breeding among the Damned. Even then, it is limited by the overriding importance of Status. While your character (through your clever play) may be able to balance a reputation from Bad Breeding with the respect he’s due through Covenant Status, Kindred of great rank are likely to care about their authority, not your character’s breeding. A character with more dots of Status than you have in this Merit is not subject to your Bad Breeding bonus. (For example, the Prince doesn’t find your character’s lowly behavior intimidating – everyone is lowly compared to him.)

Drawback: When you choose to make use of the Bad Breeding bonus in a given scene, your character is taking advantage of stereotypes and preconceptions. Those same preconceptions can work against him. Later, the Storyteller may penalize a dice pool by imposing a modifier equal to the bonus you invoked earlier, depending on how other characters in the scene regard yours. The bonus to Intimidation you drew from your reputation as an ill-tempered Savage might penalize a Persuasion roll later.

A Note on the Breeding Merits

This is important: The Good Breeding and Bad Breeding Merits do not describe any actual quality of your character’s blood. They do not represent any predisposition to a particular behavior in the way that the Inherited Skill Merit does. They do not measure how well bred or how trashy your character is thought to be, to any degree. These Merits reflect a binary state – good or bad – but do not measure how far from center your character’s reputation is, either way. What these Merits describe is your character’s capacity for taking advantage of that good or bad reputation.

It is not somehow more scandalous for a character of Good Breeding to be caught with a hooker, for example. It may be scandalous for a character of good or bad breeding, but a character with the Good Breeding or Bad Breeding Merit knows how to spin his reputation to protect himself from scandal. With these Merits, your character is better able to escape some of the consequences of his actions by hiding behind his breeding.

“What do you expect,” they say about the Gangrel with Bad Breeding, “they eat dogs.” Meanwhile, when the Ventrue with Good Breeding is caught doing the same thing, they say, “Those fops slum it down here just to see what it’s like, I think.

Once you’re in, you’re in. The Bugman knows you. The Bugman knows you’re real and the Bugman knows you’re worth knowing. This is a coveted position. It’s also a precarious one. If a Carthian ends up bothering the Bugman too much, he will quickly grow frustrated and cut the cord.

At 3 dots, the hook-up is fairly basic. The character can email the Bugman up to three times a month and get an answer to something obscure, although not mad, bad or dangerous to know. In mechanical terms, this allows the character access to any piece of information covered by any Mental Skill, assuming it is capable for research to uncover such a thing.

The answers aren’t always simple. The Bugman could send a .PDF of a relatively obscure text or send the character a package of xeroxed pamphlets he thought might be interesting. In fact, sometimes even without asking, the Bugman may surprise the character with an odd book or packet of information, just because it seemed “what I know you’re into.”

At 5 dots, the Bugman can find just about anything for the character, even incredibly dangerous shit. He could provide a handbook written by Anoushka Tepes (written in mirror writing and copied in Greek) on how to learn the Coil of Banes, or a fifteenth-century textbook written in Persian about how to deal with a stranger from the wrong side of the sky. It’s hard to tell what he’ll come up with, except that, in some form, it’s an answer to the character’s question. The Bugman trusts his contacts not to misuse the information, and that trust can be revoked at any time.

Drawback:
While it seems as if the Bugman can get anything for a character, remember that he’s not infallible. Learning something from the Bugman might have disastrous consequences, especially if the information is flawed or inherently dangerous. He’s also not as discreet as he thinks he is; using the Bugman for government records, for instance, could be very dangerous.

People talk, and so do monsters. The tradition and taboo surrounding the Masquerade may obscure communication between Kindred, but they don't block it completely. A childe of the information age, your character hears everything. Where other people see outbreaks of Masquerade breaches or scatterings of pamphlets, your character sees what's really going on. He has the ability to reconstruct current events in the Kindred world from the mess of tiny messages vampires send, deliberately or otherwise. He recognizes useful information and knows where to get more.

Cacophony information sources are divided into the following levels of accessibility. each level includes the lower ones.

••• Word on the Street: Your character can read the signals used by neighboring vampires. He might recognize the graffiti of the surrounding coteries, for example, or know their hand signals. Your character can access the knowledge of Kindred who keep domains near his, or who have access to the same herds.

•••• Talk About Town: Your character knows where underground magazines and pamphlets get dropped, as well as how to decode them. He can gain access to specific gossip and other messages being spread around the city, and subjects of general Kindred interest, such as debates on how to Embrace works, around the region.

••••• Friends Abroad: Your character is one of the rare Kindred with reliable, personal contacts outside his nearby domains. For older vampires, these are likely to be mailboxes or phone numbers. For younger generations, they might be Internet acquaintances or communities. your character not only has access to the general "noise" coming out of the world's Kindred population, but can ask specific questions of other information junkies. You should agree with the Storyteller in advance who your character's sources are, as with the Contacts Merit.

Once per topic, you may make a Wits + Investigation or Socialize roll. For each success, your character learns one fact or finds one document about the subject in the Kindred community at the level he has access to. If the Storyteller feels that less information exists than the number of successes rolled, she should inform you, although, your character may assume he simply hasn't found anything yet.

Prerequisite: Covenant Status (Carthians)

This Merit is applicable only in cities where Carthian Law has taken effect (see p. 172). The character has learned to instinctively manipulate the Law to best suit her. This usually indicates that the character has dwelled in the city for a long time and thus has an intuitive and experienced understanding of the tenets that the city’s Kindred have passed, as well as how those tenets have changed over the years. Sometimes such characters were lawyers or scholars in life, but sometimes they are simply people who latch onto Carthian Law easily (which has some interesting implications, depending on what explanation for the Law your troupe uses).

The systems for this Merit are included with the mechanics for Carthian Law and can be found on p. 174.

Prerequisite: Carthian Pull can never exceed a character’s Covenant Status (Carthians).

Carthian Pull allows a character to use a network of associates to accomplish tasks that are beyond his normal means. Because he has sowed some effort by working for the Movement, he gets to reap.

Pull is not quite the same as Status. Status is an index of respect and esteem. Carthian Pull measures how much a character has gotten done, how much she’s perceived as doing for the covenant and how much the covenant gestalt feels she deserves. Pull goes hand in hand with Covenant Status, inasmuch that someone who is useful but despised is going to have as hard a time getting help as someone who is esteemed but hapless.

Once per game month, a character with Carthian Pull can apply it to one of the following Merits: Contacts, Haven, Herd or Resources. This represents a fellow Carthian offering a favor or someone otherwise connected somehow to the Movement offering temporary aid to the character.

Example: Roger has Carthian Pull •••. He’s got a fine haven, but he’s on the wrong side of town and needs to lay low and heal after having his ass kicked in an ambush. Because Roger has some pull among his fellow Carthians, he can call in a favor, substituting his Carthian Pull for Haven. In story terms, a Carthian or Carthian sympathizer offers Roger a place to stay, allowing him to act as if he had Haven ••• for the night.

The effects of Carthian Pull do not last more than one night. Carthian Pull can be used to augment a Merit the character already possesses (for example, someone with Contacts •• and Carthian Pull • can, once per month, act as if he had Contacts •••), though Merits increased in this fashion can’t go above 5.

The player may also choose to parcel out the benefits. A character with Carthian Pull ••• could, say, use it to raise his Resources by two one night and then, a few weeks later, improve his Haven by one for a night. Whenever Carthian Pull is used, its effective level drops by the amount used for one month.

The Dragons hoard information like few other creatures in the World of Darkness, but are not the best at separating the truths from the fictions, keeping a great deal of esoteric information at their fingertips. The particulars of any given Chapter Library tend to vary greatly from those of any other library, as the media and subjects of research tend to be extremely personal.

For each dot in this Merit, the player chooses a subject of interest. Research rolls made in regard to this subject take the usual amount of time but gain an equipment bonus equal to the rating in the Merit. Furthermore, characters utilizing this Merit may substitute any appropriate Mental Skill for Academics when making a Research roll. For example, an alchemist with a weak understanding of the Liberal Arts might substitute Occult or Science when using Chapter Library (Alchemy) to research his chosen field.

Even the best-stocked library doesn’t hold the answer to every question. The information that can be gleaned by digging through the character’s personal library is left to the Storyteller’s discretion.

To the Daeva, family means Blood. Family doesn't always mean getting along or not screwing each other, but at the end of the night, it'll be family that comes for your body. Your character's family line is particularly widespread or in close contact in your local area. Doesn't matter if they're a mechanically distinct bloodline or a group of cousins who just keep in touch: when your back's against the wall, you've got somebody to turn to - or at least somebody to be the wall.

Once per session, you may add a +3 bonus to Manipulation + Persuasion or Manipulation + Empathy roll involving a member of your character's family. The family member isn't anymore likely to put his life on the line, but he is willing to take a few risks to help your character out. Especially if he sees something in it for him.

The number of dots a character possseses in Close Family determines the distance at which this bonus applies:

• Immediate Family: Sire or broodmate.

•• Middle Distance: Grandsire or first cousin.

••• Distant Kin: Second cousin, member of the same bloodline.

At her discretion, the Storyteller may apply penalties to a Close Family roll. Some example conditions:

-1: Your character has recently asked for a lot of favors, or otherwise slightly annoyed members of his family

-2: Your character's family may be close, but they have reasons to completely ostracize him, such as suspicion that he murdered a member of the family, or having been publicly convicted of a serious crime.

Drawback: Familial connections go both ways, particularly if one has called on them in the recent past. A character with this Merit may expect to be asked to assist members of his Blood as well, or risk reducing the rating of this Merit by one dot.

Prerequisite: Covenant Status (Carthians)

This is most commonly a website or blog where members discuss coding problems, software issues and other, similar coder chat. While most the members of the group are Carthians, or at least Kindred, they don’t discuss matters vampiric or Movement issues, except perhaps in passing. Private questions are commonly handled via encrypted mail, or (if they’re especially delicate) through arranged face-to-face meetings. Online is where the vampires go to find out whom to meet with, however. Generally, the system works fine, until a mortal in the group accidentally finds out what his email pals really are — usually because one of the Kindred assumed that everyone involved was Damned.

When making rolls with the Computer Skill, characters with this Merit may reroll 9s as well as 10s.

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.

Prerequisite: Covenant Status (Carthians)

This is a group that gets together to discuss current events, both mortal and Kindred. These conversations become more and more frank as the members gain trust and confidence in one another. Blabbermouths imperil a group like this, even though the kind of passion that leads to reckless opining can keep such a circle fueled and running. It’s always a careful balance to maintain, especially since someone kicked out for indiscretion is likely to be pissed and to have the political ammo to do something about it.

When making rolls with the Politics Skill, characters who have this Merit may reroll 9s as well as 10s.

Prerequisite: Covenant Status (Carthians)

Kindred who like to argue get together, have some sort of structured (or unstructured) discussion, pick a topic for the next time and then leave. The topics sometimes concern distinctly vampiric matters, but more often are oriented to more general philosophy, especially political philosophy. Members not only learn facts about a variety of topics, but also learn persuasive techniques that work on any topic.

When making rolls with the Persuasion Skill, characters who have this Merit may reroll 9s as well as 10s.

Note: If your chronicle does not incorporate the system of Merit Degeneration, found on page 51 in this book, this Merit does not have any mechanical effect.

When Kindred enter torpor, they often leave a number of assets, relationships, and other loose ends unattended. In many cases, mortal individuals and institutions simply forget about the vampire. On occasion, some of the groups a vampire holds an interest in simply vanish, a casualty of culture, technology or conflict. Kindred who are used to power, influence and prestige do not adjust well to the loss of their comforting control over mortal society.

Gathering a host of Devoted followers, descendants, cults, or even worshippers helps to shore up a vampire’s influence that he worked for before entering torpor. The Devoted can be organized in a number of different ways. A preferred ghoul and his family watch over the vampire, knowing that this dark family duty will one day be rewarded. An occult society places magical significance on the torpid vampire, shaping and evolving the secret society around their vigil. An old world crime family, bound by tradition and respect for elders, watches over the family secret and keeps a web of influence ready for the dark ancestor’s return. This Merit allows a vampire to retain a number of Social Merits in the event that he enters torpor for nearly any length of time. Social Merits affected by this Merit include Allies, Contacts, Resources and Retainer. However the player describes the vampire’s Devoted, this mixed group of mortals is charged with supporting the Kindred’s wealth, keeping records on the surrounding populace, and maintaining a presence in institutions in lieu of the slumbering Kindred. For each dot the character possesses in the Devoted Merit, the player may assign two automatic successes to a single at-risk Merit.

Example: Referring to the previous example of Maxwell’s Merits, he also has the Devoted Merit at two dots. Of the three Merits at risk (Allies 4, Contacts 2, and Resources 3), he may choose two of them, assigning two automatic successes to those two merits’ dice pools before rolling. He chooses Contacts and Resources, ensuring the retention of the entire Contacts Merit and only needing a single success on the roll for Resources in order to retain all of the dots in that Merit. The player must roll for the Allies Merit as usual.

The normal limits of distance do not apply to the vampire with this Merit when determining what she is able to sense through Blood Sympathy (Vampire: The Requiem, p. 163). While a vampire is normally limited to the metropolitan area, or roughly 50 miles, a vampire with this Merit has extended this range to virtually any place in the world. This Merit does not allow a vampire to “transmit” across vast distances; for that, she is still limited to the normal distance limitations.

No matter how badly the character got messed up last night, when she awakens from her daily slumber she is always groomed immaculately, without need for a mirror or a servant to do the work for her. Her hair and make-up are exactly as they were the night before. Her skin is as clean as it was the night she was Embraced. The vampire instinctively knows this to be the case.

Vampires with this Merit whose Humanity scores fall low enough to severely impact their interaction with mortal humans begin to look like dolls or mannequins. Their uncanny grooming makes them too perfect, too artificial.

Just as normal, it costs a Willpower point for a vampire with this Merit to make a permanent change to her appearance.

Prerequisite: Covenant Status (Carthians)

The Carthians borrow freely and widely from mortal organizations. One organization from which some borrow is Alcoholics Anonymous. Others were Embraced after the advent of widespread group therapy. If Kindred were in a support group before they died, they almost certainly feel some inclination to get in one after.

Encounter groups for Kindred are scheduled opportunities for vampires to discuss personal matters in what’s supposed to be a safe, nonjudgmental and supportive environment. They can discuss practical things (“How do I keep his wife from finding out?”) and more emotional issues (“I keep getting romantically involved with my — you know — the people I feed on.”) The advice varies widely in terms of actual value, but one side effect of an encounter group is that it can help you learn the signs of real emotional trauma, as well as the tells of incomplete honesty.

When making rolls with the Empathy Skill, characters who have this Merit may reroll 9s as well as 10s.

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.

Prerequisite: Cannot have dots in Bad Breeding. Only certain bloodlines and clans in the city qualify as “well bred” for the purposes of this Merit, but who is esteemed varies from city to city. The Storyteller has final say on what clans or bloodlines make a character eligible for this Merit in the local city.

Your character is part of a bloodline or family line regarded as admirable, classy, refined, dutiful or otherwise noble according to Ventrue tastes (and the customs they promote throughout Kindred society). This counterpart to the Bad Breeding Merit carries with it a distinct connotation of poise and excellence to those Lords who concern themselves with ancestry and parentage, but that connotation is subjective – Kindred expect a certain decorum from a well-bred vampire.

This Merit represents your character’s ability to use traditional preconceptions of his social standing to his own advantage. As a creature of fashion and taste, your character might be able to pass off an exposed lie as a polite gesture, present his opinion as something more valuable than it is, or explain away his secrecy as discretion. It isn’t considered rude for your character to miss appointments or excuse himself from difficult situations.

In game terms, this Merit grants a bonus to Social dice pools when, at the Storyteller’s discretion, the reputation of your character, his sire, his clan, or his bloodline influences the Kindred or ghoul he is trying to affect. You may choose to invoke a bonus up to the number of dots your character has in this Merit, depending on how aggressively your character takes advantage of other’s preconceptions. Remember, though, that this is a Social Merit – a white-collar reputation doesn’t actually grant your character any special knowledge of politics or finance.

The bonus from this Merit is useful only when dealing with characters who care about lineage, reputation, and breeding among the Damned. Even then, it is limited by the overriding importance of Status. While your character (through your clever play) may be able to use Good Breeding to distract from his lack of useful Covenant Status, Kindred of great rank are likely to care more about their authority than your character’s breeding. A character with more dots of Status than you have in this Merit is not subject to your Good Breeding bonus. (For example, the Priscus doesn’t find your character’s parentage impressive if you can’t back it up with actual authority.)

Drawback: When you choose to make use of the Good Breeding bonus in a given scene, your character is taking advantage of preconceptions. Those same preconceptions can work against him. Later, the Storyteller may penalize a dice pool by imposing a modifier equal to the bonus you invoked earlier, depending on how other characters in the scene regard yours. The bonus to Socialize you gained from your reputation as a prestigious social accessory might penalize a Subterfuge roll later on, when you try to claim you weren’t at that party.

A Note on the Breeding Merits

This is important: The Good Breeding and Bad Breeding Merits do not describe any actual quality of your character’s blood. They do not represent any predisposition to a particular behavior in the way that the Inherited Skill Merit does. They do not measure how well bred or how trashy your character is thought to be, to any degree. These Merits reflect a binary state – good or bad – but do not measure how far from center your character’s reputation is, either way. What these Merits describe is your character’s capacity for taking advantage of that good or bad reputation.

It is not somehow more scandalous for a character of Good Breeding to be caught with a hooker, for example. It may be scandalous for a character of good or bad breeding, but a character with the Good Breeding or Bad Breeding Merit knows how to spin his reputation to protect himself from scandal. With these Merits, your character is better able to escape some of the consequences of his actions by hiding behind his breeding.

“What do you expect,” they say about the Gangrel with Bad Breeding, “they eat dogs.” Meanwhile, when the Ventrue with Good Breeding is caught doing the same thing, they say, “Those fops slum it down here just to see what it’s like, I think.

When a ghost endeavors to communicate with the Nosferatu or manifest near the character, the ghost gains a number of dice equal to the dots purchased in this Merit. The Nosferatu gains no control over the ghost, but the ghost finds it has a much easier time communicating with the Nosferatu than with others, whether manifesting or communicating without Numina, or attempting to use Numina such as Clairvoyance, Ghost Sign or Ghost Speech. The ghost gains nothing to rolls made in attempt to harm the Nosferatu (though insulting or threatening communications still gain the bonus).

Whenever the Nosferatu makes a roll against a ghost (be it a roll to communicate with it, abjure it, exorcise it, or use a blessed item against it), the Nosferatu gains a number of dice equal to the dots purchased in this Merit. This bonus doesn’t apply when attempting to affect a ghost’s anchor.

A haven is a place where a vampire sleeps, protected from the sun during the deadly daylight hours. Legends tell of vampires in dark, twisted citadels on high mountain peaks, complete with labyrinthine catacombs, but the reality is far less grandiose. In truth, a haven can be as simple as a sewer or an abandoned warehouse or a crate in a forgotten storage closet, as long as it is undisturbed between dawn and dusk.

All havens are not created equal. A warehouse might have plenty of space and proximity to a significant amount of prey, but it might not be secure against unwanted visitors. An abandoned subway car in a long-forgotten tunnel has space and adequate security, but it might be so far out of the way that finding prey is difficult. Great time and effort is spent finding suitable havens, and their value is represented by three factors — location, size and security. Players who choose this Merit must also choose how to allocate these three factors when spending points. For instance, two points may be spent on Haven Location, with a third spent on Haven Security.

A good Haven Location makes it easier for a vampire to feed, situated near a meeting place for large numbers of humans. A haven with many dots in this category might be close to several nightclubs or bars that do considerable nighttime business, while one with few dots might simply be close to a bus or train station that brings travelers on a regular basis. Each dot of Haven Location grants a +1 die bonus on hunting checks for the character who controls it and any whom she allows in. Havens without any dots in Location are sufficiently secluded so as to not provide any bonus. Haven Size is important to characters who need a place to safely store their possessions and valuables. A haven with no dots in Haven Size is just large enough for its owner and perhaps a single companion, with minimal if any storage capacity — the aforementioned crate in the forgotten storage closet, or a cramped apartment. By spending points to increase a haven’s size, a player allows for accoutrements and personal effects. Larger havens can be anything from mansions to mountain hideaways to vast subterranean catacombs. Note, however, that havens of considerable size are not necessarily easy to maintain.

• A small apartment or underground chamber; 1-2 rooms
•• A large apartment or small family home; 3-4 rooms
••• A warehouse, church or large home; 5-8 rooms, or large enclosure
•••• A abandoned mansion or network of subway tunnels; equivalent of 9-15 rooms or chambers
••••• A sprawling estate or vast network of tunnels; countless rooms or chambers

Of course, Haven Location and Haven Size do not prevent rival vampires from attempting to find and steal choice havens, nor do they prevent intrusion by mortals (police, criminal organizations, social workers). Players of characters who wish to ensure privacy and safety may choose to spend points on Haven Security, thus making it difficult for others to gain entrance. Havens with no dots in Haven Security can be found by those intent enough to look, and offer little protection once they have been breached. Each dot of Haven Security subtracts one die from efforts to intrude into the haven by anyone a character doesn’t specifically allow in. This increased difficulty may be because the entrance is so difficult to locate (behind a bookcase, under a carpet) or simply difficult to penetrate (behind a vault door). Also, each dot of Haven Security offers a +1 bonus on Initiative for those inside against anyone attempting to gain entrance (good sight lines, video surveillance).

Characters whose players spend no points at all on Haven might have their own small, humble havens, or perhaps they share the haven of a sire or Prince. In any event, they simply do not gain the mechanical benefits of those who have spent Merit points improving the quality of their homes. Each aspect of the Haven Merit has a limit of 5. In other words, Haven Location, Haven Size and Haven Security may not rise above 5 (to a maximum of 15 points spent on this Merit).

Special: It’s possible for the Haven Merit to be shared among characters in a close-knit group. They might simply be devoted to one another and willing to pool what they have, or perhaps their mutual reliance on an individual or trust could bring them together to share what they have in common. To share this Merit, two or more characters simply have to be willing to pool their dots for greater capability. A shared rating in the Haven Merit cannot rise higher than five dots in any of the three aspects of the trait. That is, characters cannot pool more than five points to be devoted to, say, Haven Size. If they wish to devote extra points to the Merit, they must allocate those dots to a different aspect of the Merit, such as Location or Security.

Shared Haven dots can be lost. Coterie members or associates might be abused or mistreated, ending relationships. Group members might perform actions that cast themselves (and the group) in a bad light. Money might be spent or lost. If any group member does something to diminish the haven, its dots decrease for all group members. That’s the weakness of sharing dots in this Merit. The chain is only as strong as its weakest link. The Storyteller dictates when character actions or events in a story compromise shared Haven dots.

Characters can also leave a shared haven. A rift might form between close Kindred. A character might meet Final Death. Or one could be kicked out of the haven by the others. When a character leaves a shared-Haven relationship, the dots he contributed are removed from the pool. If the individual still survives, he doesn’t get all his dots back for his own purposes. He gets one less than he originally contributed. So, if a character breaks a relationship with his coterie, his two Haven dots are lost by the group, but he gets only one dot back for his own purposes. The lost dot represents the cost or bad image that comes from the breakup. If all members agree to part ways, they all lose one dot from what they originally contributed.

The Storyteller decides what reduced dots mean in the story when a character leaves a shared haven. Perhaps no one else picks up the character’s attention to Haven Security, leaving that to drop. The haven might not be tended as fastidiously, causing a drop in the Haven Location value. Maybe a portion of the haven falls into disuse or even collapses, causing an effective drop in Haven Size. Whatever the case, a plausible explanation must be determined.

A character need not devote all of her Haven dots to the shared Haven Merit, of course. A Kindred might maintain a separate haven of her own outside the communal one represented by the shared trait. Any leftover dots that a character has (or is unwilling to share) signify what she has to draw upon as an individual, separate from her partners. For example, three characters share a haven and expend a group total of five dots. One character chooses to use two other dots on a private haven for herself. Those remaining two dots represent a haven entirely separate from what she and her partners have established together.

To record a shared Haven Merit on your character sheet, put an asterisk next to the name of the Haven Merit and fill in the total dots that your character has access to thanks to his partnership. In order to record his original contribution, write it in parentheses along with the Merit’s name. It is not important to note which aspect of the Haven Merit on which those points are spent, as this allows greater flexibility should a character ever decide to withdraw from the community arrangement.

Some vampires tire of the hunt and seek to develop a small group of mortals upon whom they can feed without fear. Such a herd may take many forms, from a brothel of prostitutes to a blood cult worshipping a vampiric god. These mortals provide nourishment without the difficulties of the hunt. Typically, herds are not very controllable or closely connected to the vampires who use them, nor do they possess great skill in any one area. (For effective agents, the Allies or Retainers Merit is more suitable.) Each dot of Herd adds one die to feeding rolls (p. 164).

Prerequisite: Vampire or ghoul

This Merit measures your character’s involvement in a cyclical House. This Merit reflects his commitment to, and influence with, the other members of the House and is a prerequisite for all other Dynastic Merits. Each level of this Merit represents a different relationship to the character’s House.

Trusted (•): Your character, whether Kindred or ghoul, is trusted by the members of the dynasty, possibly being groomed for eventual participation. For all purposes of House law, your character is a participant in the House. Your character can purchase some other Dynastic Merits and enjoy minor benefits of membership, but he does not have access to the House’s full assets and is not yet honored or protected by a successor. This level of the Merit confers a +1 bonus to Social dice pools involving members of the same House, similar to Status.

Successor (•••): As above, except your character is a full (though perhaps not equal) participant in the dynasty. This level of the Merit confers a +3 bonus to Social dice pools involving members of the same House, similar to Status.

Your character is the childe of a Ventrue sire with unusually potent blood or a phenomenally strong will. Some degree of her power has been passed on to you through the Blood – not genetically or through training, but through a kind of mystical reverberation. You are simply predisposed to have a greater resistance to certain powers of the Blood.

In game terms, your character enjoys an increased resistance to the powers of Dominate and/or Animalism when those powers are used against him by other vampires.

With two dots in this Merit, you gain a +2 bonus to resist or contest any power of Dominate or Animalism used against your character by another Ventrue vampire, if your character has dots in the same Discipline as that power.

With four dots in this Merit, you gain the +2 bonus regardless of the clan of the opposing vampire.

Thus, with two dots in this Merit and one dot in Dominate, you gain a +2 bonus to resist or contest all powers of Dominate used against your character by other Ventrue, but your character gains no special benefit against powers of Animalism or any Discipline used by non-Ventrue. With four dots in this Merit and one dot each in Dominate and Animalism, you gain a +2 bonus to resist or contest all powers of Dominate and Animalism, no matter what clan your opponent calls family.

Your character’s Beast is willful, unknowable, certainly inhuman. Certain mind-control powers have a hard time reconciling this, for they are ostensibly for use on a human mind. But the Beast will not be shackled so easily.

In game terms, this means that your character has a canny resistance to the powers of Dominate and Majesty, gaining +2 on resistance rolls made to thwart their effects. In many Gangrel possessing this Merit, this is less of a conscious thing, and more something that the Beast stirs to work against. (In this way, some posit the Beast as kind of a parasite in and of itself: it works on the behalf of the host to keep itself safe.)

Drawback: Unfortunately, the Beast being what it is, the Gangrel suffers -2 to any rolls made to resist the effects of Animalism powers (Leashing the Beast in particular) or other powers that specifically interact with the Beast.

Prerequisite: Covenant Status (Carthians)

These groups tend to be very small and secretive, as their most common meeting places are morgues after closing time. Kindred discuss, debate, dissect and speculate. Generally, they keep up-to-date on mortal medicine in order to extrapolate applications to Kindred physiology. Sometimes, they even experiment.

When making rolls with the Medicine Skill, characters with this Merit may reroll 9s as well as 10s.

The Kindred who believe that eating a mortal’s liver can substitute for a period of normal feeding have it wrong. Devouring a human liver, still hot and dripping from the victim’s body, merely enables a vampire to subsist on less potent forms of blood. A vampire whose Blood Potency restricts her to human blood can subsist on animal blood once more; Kindred who must drink the Vitae of their fellow vampires can go back to merely mortal blood — for a while.

Liver-eating carries a number of restrictions. First and foremost, the vampire needs a living, human victim to kill. Aside from loss of Humanity, the character faces the practical difficulties of committing a murder, hiding the body and making sure the police can never tie the crime back to her.

Once the vampire rips the liver from her prey, she has to eat it and hold it down. To consume anything except blood, a character must expend one Vitae to keep from immediately vomiting what she swallowed (as described on p. 157 of Vampire: The Requiem). It isn’t enough to hold the raw meat down for a scene before eliminating it, however. To gain the benefits of liver-eating, a vampire must also expend a Willpower point to keep the meat in her stomach until she sleeps. When she rises the next night, the liver is burned away by her Vitae and she can feed on weaker blood for a number of nights equal to 10 + twice her Stamina.

Liver-eating takes practice or training from someone who already knows the art. It therefore constitutes a three-dot Merit. As a character tries to develop the art, however, the Storyteller may ask the player to roll Stamina + Resolve each time the character attempts to eat a liver; failure means the character vomits up her cannibal feast (possibly just as she slipped into her daily sleep) and gains no benefits for the attempt. After the character succeeds three times (or so), the Storyteller can grant that the character has mastered liver-eating and no further rolls are needed.

“THE CRONES WHO RUN THAT PLACE PAY GOOD MONEY FOR LIVERS. NEVERMIND WHAT THEY ’RE FOR.”

Your character possesses a keen palette for blood, either through training or raw talent. She is able to discern details about kine and Kindred through nuances in the taste of their Vitae. When your character attempts to discern parentage, power, or other details about a subject by tasting its blood, add your dots in this Merit to the dice pool.

You also gain this bonus on perception rolls that would otherwise involve scent or taste if your character is able to taste blood from the area. At the Storyteller’s discretion, characters with two or more dots in this Merit may make a Wits + Medicine + Lordly Palette roll, with a –2 penalty (or greater), to detect known toxins or diseases in sampled blood. The character swishes the sample about like wine and then, hopefully, spits it out. Other unusual perception rolls may also be possible through this Merit on a case-by-case basis, as the Storyteller sees fit. A vampire machinist may be able to use a Wits + Crafts dice pool to detect the presence of industrial toxins in a subject’s blood. Not just anything can be sampled and analyzed through the lordly palette, however – this Merit reflects only a knack for discerning things present in blood.

Despite its name, and the Ventrue reputation for well-honed palettes, this Merit is available to Kindred of any clan.

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.

Similar to Covenant Status, Mithraic Status indicates rank within the Mysteries of Mithras. In the narrowest sense, each dot conveys only rank within the Mithraic cult, and if the Mysteries are weak (or very carefully hidden) in a given chronicle, that may be all. Within the cult, members of lower grade are expected to respect those of higher degree; as with other types of Status, Mithraic Status adds to dice pools for interactions with fellow Mithraic initiates. Unlike other Status types, however, Mithraic Status (based as it is on a supernatural bargain) does add to the dice pools predicated on supernatural powers. The Heliodromus of a Mithraic sect would add his Mithraic Status to the dice pool for use of his Dominate Discipline, for example, but only against fellow Mithraists.

• Corax (“Raven”)
•• Nymphus (“Bridegroom”)
••• Miles (“Soldier”)
•••• Leo (“Lion”)
••••• Perses (“Persian”)
•••••• Heliodromus (“Courier of the Sun”)
••••••• Pater (“Father”)

Mithraic Status has nothing to do with any other sort of vampiric Status — a Perses Adept may be nothing but a low-caste nonentity in the sight of the city’s Prince, or in the gossip of his clan. Since Mithraic initiation is a secret, a character can have more than three dots in Covenant Status along with his Mithraic Status. Of course, that is a dangerous double game to play, especially if the covenant involved is the Lancea Sanctum.

Prerequisite: Covenant Status (Carthians), Membership in a Night Doctor clique (see p. 33)

The Night Doctors have developed surgical techniques that speed Kindred healing.

Although a vampiric body can’t repair itself without the use of Vitae, Night Doctor Surgery can make the job easier, and therefore more efficient.

Performing an operation with this Merit requires access to a fully modern operating room and cutting-edge tools. Due to the extreme difficulty of the techniques, tools give no bonus. They simply make resetting broken bones, stitching together tissue, reconnecting blood vessels and realigning nerves possible, all of which is necessary to ease the effort of the Vitae. In extreme cases, such as severe burns, skin grafts from other parts of the body are employed.

The player of the character performing the surgery makes an extended Intelligence + Medicine roll, with each roll representing an hour of surgery. The doctor needs to achieve a number of successes equal to the number of Health points of damage the patient has suffered (from whatever kind of damage). Once those successes are amassed, the patient has been stabilized. The player then makes one final roll, again representing an hour of surgery. Each success on that final roll turns one point of lethal damage into one point of bashing damage. Alternately, two successes on that final roll can be spent to turn one point of aggravated damage into two points of lethal damage.

Example: Monica has suffered two points of aggravated damage on her arms, but is otherwise unharmed. She goes to see Dr. M for surgery. His Intelligence + Medicine pool is five dice, and he needs two successes to stabilize her. He does it on his first two rolls, so after two hours of surgery he’s ready to really attack the problem and start reconstructing her mangled limbs. He rolls again, and this time gets two successes.
This turns one of her points of aggravated damage into two points of lethal damage. If he’d gotten four successes, both points of her aggravated damage would turn into four points of lethal damage. Had he failed his roll, the damage would remain.

It should be noted that many forms of anesthesia don’t work on Kindred. Those that do generally require the patient to use the Blush of Life effect to deliberately absorb them. Since Kindred who are willing to undergo surgery are often short of Vitae, this can be a problem. Various solutions have been used, from staking (which has the drawback of inflicting more damage, but which at least keeps the patient still) to Dominate to simply strapping the patient down and stuffing a gag in his mouth.

Some vampires — especially the Shadows — become so adept at disappearing into the dark that something of the dark attaches itself to them, and they become surpassingly difficult to notice. After a while, an occulted vampire becomes so forgettable that it becomes hard even to remember even if the vampire was male or female, let alone details like dress, or hair or eye color. Old vampires with Occultation (such as Doe) even begin to forget who they themselves were.

A vampire using Auspex •• to read the aura of a character with this Merit aura suffers a dice pool penalty equal to the character’s dots in Occultation. Likewise, uses of Auspex ••• on items last touched by the character suffer the same penalty.

Further, the character gains a bonus on uses of Obfuscate equal to her dots in the Occultation Merit.

Drawback: If the character ever somehow gets dots in the Fame Merit, she loses her dots in Occultation. More importantly, a character with Occultation who has dots in the Majesty Discipline always suffers a dice pool penalty equal to her dots in the Occultation Merit: Majesty is about being noticed; a supernatural tendency towards Occultation flies in the face of that.

Some Gangrel maintain “Savage Gardens,” ill-manicured plots of land (whether in the city or far from its lights) where blood-red roses grow with biting thorns, where love-lies-bleeding hangs from a rotten crosshatch of wood, where sallow trees produce sick fruit and climbing vines conspire to blot out the light from the moon and stars. Some such Damned cultivate gardens much like any mortal: while a vampire’s touch is chill and unnatural, it does not blacken roots or wilt flowers (usually). Some, though, aim to take a more personal touch with their projects. They grow so bound to such cultivations that they begin to feel a connection with the garden, with the very soil around it.

This opens up Animalism to the Gangrel, allowing her to use the Discipline on plants as well as animals. Of course, this is not a perfect one-to-one ratio: the powers work a bit differently on foliage and flowers than they do wolf and hawk. Furthermore, the Gangrel must possess Animalism at a rating of one more dot than the power she wishes to use with plants; thus, to use Obedience, a Gangrel must possess Animalism •••.

The first four dots of Animalism work accordingly when used on plants:

Feral Whispers (•): The Savage is able to speak to a plant. This is no easy conversation. Plants “think” in alien, inscrutable ways – sometimes simple, other times woefully complex. A Savage might be able to learn who was in her garden or what the plant hungers for, but will have no luck discerning elements of time from flora. Eye contact is obviously not required for this ability to take effect.

Obedience (••): The Savage can command a plant to grow in a certain way, and somewhat quickly. He can demand that it bloom. He can force it to produce nectar. He can stir a vine to climb a wall, slippery moss to spread across a stone path, or the branches of a tree to grow together so that visibility is limited to nearly nothing. Given the commands thusly, foliage does grow at thrice its normal “growth rate” until its task is complete. Note that a plant cannot do things that are outside its purview; that is the nature of the next level of this power.

Call of the Wild (•••): With this, the Gangrel can demand that a plant grow elements outside of its own nature: a blood-red maple tree may bloom roses, the grass beneath one’s feet may manifest thorns, a thick hanging vine may be infused with medicinal or hallucinogenic properties to humans (or to Damned who drink the blood of those humans). Once again, growing such elements occurs at a growth rate of thrice its expected speed.

Subsume the Lesser Spirit (••••): The vampire may psychically enter a single plant’s “body” and possess it. The other rules of this power as per with animals apply. The Gangrel cannot move faster than the plant normally does (which may be not at all or at such a glacial rate that it’s not worth considering). Sunlight does not harm the vampire while in this state (though it can harm his empty body), and he does not need to attempt to remain awake at this time. To exit this state, the vampire must expend a point of Willpower or be otherwise trapped. He can use Animalism while within the plant, but no other Disciplines.

Note that this Merit only applies to the first four levels of Animalism: Leashing the Beast (•••••) has no plant-specific effects.

Drawback: Possessing this Merit makes it harder for the Savage to use Animalism as it was naturally (or perhaps unnaturally) intended. All Animalism rolls suffer -1 dice when used on actual animals, due to the perversion of the Discipline.

For most Damned, being a part of a coterie is without true bond. The vampires within a given coterie might work against each other as much as they work for one another. A handshake and a kind word in the front, a sharpened stake and a whispered insult from the back. Moreover, at least when compared against the entire backdrop of a vampire’s eternal Requiem, coteries form and fade all the time. They are ultimately fleeting.

Not so with some Gangrel coteries, known as “packs.” A pack formed between Gangrel is something that goes beyond a social relationship. It gets in the Blood. This doesn’t mean they share Vitae, swapping the red stuff in some sort of circular Vinculum. No, it’s as if the Blood within one Savage shifts subtly to be like the Blood of another in his pack. Silly as it seems, it’s how mortal females living together for long periods of time often develop the same menstrual periods: the Blood is given over to a certain animal rhythm for those who care to give into it. Some Gangrel certainly do.

Only those who possess this Merit within a given coterie gain the benefits, and these benefits only apply to those who possess the dots of this Merit in that coterie. (In other words, if a pack has four Savages and only two of them possess the Pack Blooded Merit, only those two gain the benefits for one another. The others are outside the harmony of this feral resonance.) To reiterate, this only works with vampires in the same coterie or “pack.” How a pack is formed is different from place to place. Some Gangrel institute elaborate rituals of scarification or ceremonial hunts to “bond” the Damned together. Others need no such ritualized behavior, recognizing other kin and giving into the unspoken bonds immediately.

Those with this Merit gain +1 Initiative, +1 Defense and +1 Speed when working together in combat (they must be within 50 yards of one another).

Outside combat, those with the Pack Blooded Merit gain +3 to all Empathy rolls made on one another.

Drawback: Being Pack Blooded is a disavowal – whether conscious or not – of one’s own human compass. Degeneration rolls made whilst in the company of other Pack Blooded members of the coterie are made at -1 dice.

The character has one year in his Requiem that he remembers with perfect clarity. He may look back over that year in his mind and recall moments with alarming ease. The reason for this may be unclear to the character, or it may be that something happened during that year to focus the character’s mind (performed diablerie, Embraced another, awoke from torpor, or some other Requiem-changing event). The result is that when attempting to remember any event or element of that year, the character gains a number of bonus dice to that roll equal to the dots spent in this Merit. (See “Memorizing and Remembering,” p. 44, World of Darkness Rulebook.) The player can also add this Merit, in the form of bonus dice, to the character’s attempt to resist indoctrination upon awakening, if the brainwasher is attempting to alter beliefs or memories relevant to that year (see p. 43).

A player can purchase this Merit a number of times for her character, with each instance representing one year. Those years needn’t be consecutive.

While some Kindred claim to have spent a century or more in torpor and remember their earliest nights clearly, others spend a mere decade in torpor before forgetting which city they were Embraced in. Because of this nigh-inevitable strain of the Requiem, some have turned to the practice of keeping written accounts of their unlives. Depending on the time period from whence a vampire came and the culture’s technology, these written accounts can vary from engraved tablets to hand-written journals to blogs on the Internet. This Merit represents not only how complete a written record is, but also how organized the vampire keeps those records.

Totally assimilating decades or centuries of accounts and memories could involve prodigious study. However, a Kindred’s Requiem Diary Merit is helpful for gaining an edge when dealing with one’s past. Upon taking this Merit, the player should write a background for his character, especially detailing where the vampire resided, major events that he witnessed, and important individuals that impacted his unlife. The Storyteller may always reserve the right to insert additional places and time periods if it suits the story, as the vampire would not necessarily remember he wrote such information into his journal.

When presented with an issue that the Storyteller and player agree could be related to the vampire’s earlier years, he may consult his Requiem Diary. Successful research provides an amount of inspiration and insight, bringing those events of the past back to his mind. The player rolls Intelligence + Academics. For each dot in the Merit, the vampire gains the 9-again quality on a single Mental or Social dice pool directly related to the subject of the research.

Depending on the nature of the information sought, penalties may apply to the roll. Researching the status of his own covenant at the time and place of his Embrace is only slightly obscure in relation to his diary, imposing a -1 penalty. Uncovering details of the specifics behind an individual rival and his weaknesses could be a bit tougher to find, imposing a -3 penalty. Based upon details and information provided by the player, the Storyteller should also assign bonuses to certain rolls. If the player has specifically mentioned a person or event that the vampire needs to research, a +2 bonus could be applied to the roll. Should a mere reference to a related group of people or time period be written in the player’s notes, a +1 could still be applied. The player can choose, of course, to describe the journal in very general terms, and the Storyteller shouldn’t penalize the player for not writing a novel. However, if the Requiem Diary is going to be any use at all, the Storyteller needs to know what span of time it covers and what sorts of things the character put in it.

If the character has any rating in this Merit, he gains bonuses to certain types of rolls upon awakening from torpor. See p. 43 and 44.

Something in one species of animal resonates with the Gangrel: that wild spark in a hound’s eye, the mad curiosity in a cat’s swishing tail, the alien distance of a fat and hungry fly. The Savage gains +2 to all Animal Ken or Animalism rolls involving animals of that species. The character cannot possess several versions of this Merit applying to different species. It can only be purchased once and cannot change: whatever it is that forms the link between animal and Savage is something that is deep and primal, a connection based off the Savage’s innate nature. The Damned are simply not dynamic enough of creatures to dig that deep and change something so utterly fundamental.

Prerequisite: NOT Fame 2+ (==__== #)

Your character is one of those people who just belongs. He can walk into a party not caring he doesn't know the guests and doesn't know the host. All he truly needs is awareness of exactly the kind of people he's surrounded by: how they dress, how they act, and most especially what they want. This Merit is based on long periods of interaction with and observation of the herd. In fact, understanding how to belong is based on knowing the differences that make mortals many herds instead of just one. He knows how to stand out, and he knows how to blend in.

Your character gains a bonus, equal to his rating in this Merit, for Socialize rolls in dealing with the members of a group who adhere to a specific sort of identity: hanging at the cop bar, among the society mavens at the most exclusive club in town, or just chilling with the local underworld scum at an illegal gambling den. Additionally, you receive this same modifier for any Persuasion or Subterfuge rolls made to convince the members of that group that you're one of them.

At the Storteller's option, not having any dots in a skill appropriate to the group (Computer when trying to blend in with programmers, or Streetwise among criminals) inflicts a -3 dice penalty to Socialize rolls associated with this Merit.

This Merit can also be used as social camouflage, blending into groups of others to remain unseen by those searching for the character. In such an instance, the character with this Merit may make a Manipulation + Socialize roll, opposed by the Wits + Composure or other appropriate roll used to look for him.

The connection between members of a House may become so strong that verbal communication is the least of the benefits they enjoy. At times, the link between House members is so strong that torpid Kindred can passively project their feelings or wishes onto others of their House. This ability would certainly be invoked if something happened to catastrophically impact the House’s holdings or if the waking participant wanted to take another talented Kindred into the House.

The effects of this Merit can only be felt by a character with a Torpor Connection to a vampire that is currently torpid. By spending one Willpower and making a successful Wits + Empathy roll, the character briefly connects with his torpid fellow and becomes aware of his instinctual, emotional reactions to things knowingly perceived by the character. The range of this ability is five miles per dot purchased.

While certain Merits detailed in the World of Darkness Rulebook focus on recognition in mortal society, certain Status concerns itself with the social orders of the night and represents recognition among other vampires. Status is divided into three areas — City, Clan and Covenant. Players must choose one of these three areas for each Merit point spent. (Enterprising Storytellers may come up with additional types of Status, and clever players might have unique applications as well. Status is designed as a sort of “umbrella” Merit, under which new types can be created.)

City Status represents a vested responsibility and according acknowledgement in the affairs of a domain. Regardless of clan and covenant, certain individuals rise to the top of the social or feudal strata, exemplary because of their efforts in the name of the domain as a whole. Princes, Regents, Primogen, Harpies and other “officers” of a given domain fit this description.

Additionally, City Status represents those Kindred who aren’t part of the prevailing social structure, but who nonetheless have significant esteem, sway or reputation among the Kindred. Examples include bosses of powerful gangs, Kindred who have considerable influence in specialized areas (prominent businessmen, city government, health care and hospitals, religious communities), or even just those who are powerful in their own right but largely apolitical, as with a potent elder who abstains from city responsibilities but whose territory is respected by all other local Kindred.

In some cases, City Status is very much a chicken-and-egg situation — does Prince Maxwell have City Status 5 because he’s Prince, or did his accumulated City Status result in his claiming praxis? In other cases, City Status obviously reflects accomplishment, as with a political activist who has many mortal supporters — but those supporters obviously didn’t join his cause because they knew he was a vampire. Harpies, in particular, make much of these distinctions, but some speculate that that’s because their own Status falls under the definition of City Status.

• Hound or “rising star”
•• Sheriff or “accomplished individual”
••• Harpy, Seneschal, Master of Elysium or “much-deserved reputation”
•••• Regent, Primogen, Herald or “cornerstone of Kindred society”
••••• Prince or “true paragon”

Clan Status is concerned with lineage and the Blood. At the outset of a chronicle, a Kindred’s standing often reflects the prestige her sire has gained and passed along, such as with regard to the Ventrue. Many assume that childer who were Embraced by powerful and influential members of the clan have already shown some special quality or excellence, otherwise they would not have been chosen by so great a sire. This kind of recognition is short lived, however. A neonate might enjoy prestige by association under the purview of her sire, but such a favored childe is expected to make a name for herself.

Vampires who truly embody the ideals of their clan and who establish themselves in positions of power and influence (often as Prisci) gain the respect of others in their clan, being perceived as models for success. While the Daeva tell tales of particularly vicious Harpies of distant cities, the Gangrel speak of brooding hulks who confidently brave the Lupine-infested wilds alone. Those who diverge from the expected behavior of the clan in remarkable ways gain renown (or notoriety), as well, perhaps founding bloodlines that become known to vampire society as a whole.

Clan Status is not so rigidly defined as City Status. While individual clan titles might arise, the notion of esteem is more general in this context.

Covenant Status represents rank, achievement and responsibility, less concerned with clan ideals and more with covenant actions, philosophies and accomplishments. The various covenants are not bound by any supernatural means or governed by clan lineage. They find a commonality of goals and ideologies, instead. It is not enough to be powerful or exemplary of clan ideals; a covenant is concerned with what its members have done to benefit its cause and combat its rivals.

Those Kindred who enjoy the greatest covenant-based esteem are often the core members of their factions in a given city, those around whom others rally. These Kindred instigate or mediate conflict with other covenants, generally looking to further certain idealistic goals and establish themselves or other members in positions of influence in the local hierarchy. A Mekhet in command of a massive spy network might have status within his clan, but the lowliest of his spies might risk her unlife to gather a specific piece of information that helps oust the Invictus Prince, subsequently enjoying far more status with, say, the Ordo Dracul than her master.

A character must have at least a single dot of Covenant Status in order to gain the benefits of any special abilities of that covenant. In other words, a character must have at least one dot of Covenant Status (Lancea Sanctum) in order to learn Theban Sorcery. Or a character must have at least one dot of Covenant Status (Invictus) to take advantage of the experience-point break on the Herd, Mentor, Resources and Retainer Merits. If a character leaves a covenant after learning some of its secrets, he does not lose any of those traits for which he paid experience points, but he may not learn additional dots of those traits (or additional dots at that particular price break, as with the Invictus and the Carthians). See p. 91-92 for the complete list of which covenants grant which benefits.

Like Clan Status, Covenant Status is not so specifically tied to certain titles. It is more a notion of an individual’s accomplishments. A Lancea Sanctum Priest, for example, has a greater title than, say, a noted ethicist of the covenant, but that ethicist might have written numerous treatises on the state of undeath and the soul, according her more esteem among her peers than the Priest who rides solely on the weight of her title.

• The character is known to a select subset of the clan/covenant — a spy network, perhaps. •• The majority of the clan/covenant in the city recognizes the character’s face and can recall her exploits. ••• The character’s deeds are known to all in the local covenant, even in other nearby cities; many members of other covenants recognize her face. •••• Word of the character’s exploits has traveled far, and her name is known in cities around the country. ••••• The character’s name and face are synonymous with her clan/covenant; her exploits are taught to new members of the clan/covenant.

Status can serve as a mixed blessing, however. Those who enjoy the most might be able to use it to their advantage, but they are also visible targets for their enemies. High levels of Status make it almost impossible to pass unnoticed, even while they open doors that would otherwise remain closed.

Status works like a “social tool” in that it adds to dice pools for social interactions between members of the sub-group in question. That is, Covenant Status adds to dice pools for interactions with members of the same covenant, Clan Status enhances interactions with members of the same Clan, and City Status affects those who are recognized residents of the given domain. City Status, however, may be ignored by those who are among the unbound.

Example: Loki wants access to the Mekhet Priscus, but the Priscus is already occupied with an envoy from Clan Daeva. He instead finds himself dealing with one of her aides, another Mekhet. Loki, a Mekhet himself, tries to convince the aide that he has important business to discuss with the Priscus. His player adds Clan Status to a Manipulation + Persuasion dice pool. Loki has Manipulation 2, Persuasion 3 and Clan Status (Mekhet) 2, creating a pool of seven dice for the task.

Status does not add to dice pools predicated on supernatural powers. For example, a Prince’s City Status is not added to a dice pool for use of his Dread Gaze power. Dealing with Status can be a mire of responsibility, though clever characters can turn it to their advantage. They may actually have a variety of Status — it is not unheard of for a character to have City Status, Clan Status and Covenant Status. A character may have Clan Status only as a member of his own clan. For instance, a Nosferatu never gains Clan Status (Gangrel) no matter how much aid he provides the Savages. His aid of the Gangrel may certainly earn him esteem, but such concern is better handled on a case-by-case basis by the Storyteller, not in the form of Clan Status.

Covenant Status is unique in that a character may, on occasion, have more than one form of it. This occurs almost exclusively at low levels, where a character is often beneath the notice of most other members of his covenants. A character may never have more than three dots total in Covenant Status among multiple covenants. A double-agent, for example, might take two dots worth of Covenant Status (Carthians) and a single dot of Covenant Status (Lancea Sanctum), representing the character’s true allegiance to the Carthians as well as the fact that he’s in on the ground floor of the Lancea Sanctum so that he can feed information back to his Carthian fellows. A character may even have a single dot of Covenant Status in three different covenants — perhaps he’s somewhat accomplished in each, but has yet to determine where his true loyalties lie. Naturally, a character with Status in only one Covenant is not beholden to the three-dot limit.

A character with dots in Covenant Status through multiple factions does indeed gain access to those covenants’ special benefits. Covenants expect certain contributions of their members, however, and if other Kindred find out that the vampire in question plays multiple sides against the middle, he might see that Status vanish in a single night in which he’s called upon to account for his treacheries. Such is also the reason that cumulative Covenant Status is limited to three dots. By the time a character gains a certain degree of Status in a single covenant, he sticks out like a sore thumb if he turns up among another covenant’s members. (An exception to this might occur if a character is truly some sort of deep-cover agent or other mole, but that circumstance is best handled at the Storyteller’s discretion).

Prerequisite: Covenant Status (Carthians)

Often taking the form of a book club based around scientific or cultural texts, the Study Group pursues knowledge aimlessly, based more on what’s interesting than what’s useful at the minute.

When making rolls with the Academics Skill, characters with this Merit may reroll 9s as well as 10s.

The vampire’s Beast resonates with the Larvae, allowing her to seize control of a swarm. Whenever the character is in close enough proximity to a Larva to trigger the Predator’s Taint, the player may roll Presence + Resolve + Blood Potency in a contested roll vs. the Larva’s (or the pack leader’s, if applicable) Resolve + Composure. If the vampire wins, the swarm is under the vampire’s control until she is physically separated from the swarm for a period of one hour per dot of Blood Potency. At the end of that time, the swarm regains its independence, though the vampire can attempt to assume control again. During the separation, the Larvae will follow the vampire’s last orders, or, if no orders were given, attempt to find her.

While in control of a swarm, the vampire can issue verbal commands to the swarm. The Larvae follow the Kindred’s commands to the best of their abilities. In order to force the swarm to undertake especially dangerous actions (entering a burning building, fighting a more powerful vampire without the rest of the pack, etc.), the vampire’s player must roll Presence + Intimidation. If the command involves facing fire or sunlight, apply a –3 to the roll.

Another vampire can attempt steal the pack away from the master, but incurs a –5 penalty on the attempt to do it, whether using this Merit or another method.

Drawback:
The swarm doesn’t feel safe away from the master. The Larvae follow the vampire around, which can make maintaining the Masquerade difficult. Clever masters find ways to compensate, but one Larva running off after a vessel can ruin the whole enterprise.

By purchasing this Merit, the Savage using Shape of the Beast (Protean ••••) can become a swarm of small animals instead of a single larger creature. The purchase of this Merit allows for only one type of animal: rat, raven, horsefly, or some other creature of Size 2 or smaller. This Merit must be repurchased for each different type of animal.

The Protean swarm form exists in a radius or yards equal to the Gangrel’s own Size (usually Size 5). A swarm can generally inflict one die of bashing damage to anyone within its radius per turn. A swarm can inflict even more damage by condensing. Every time the swarm condenses to cover one yard less of its full area, it inflicts one additional die of damage per turn (representing a larger concentration of rats biting, bees stinging, and so forth). Condensing is also representative of a visual horror: rats piling into a teetering tower of yellow teeth and tails flickering, or a column of spiders toppling toward a victim. A vampire can choose to drink blood in this form, thus doing lethal damage, but can only drink a single point per two turns – many mouths make quick work, yes, but they can only take blood in nips and licks.

Armor is effective against a swarm only if it covers one’s full body, but even then it provides only half its rating. In addition, targets are distracted by the swarm, suffering -2 dice on rolls involving perception or requiring concentration while they are within the radius, even if they’re not specifically attacked.

The swarm cannot be attacked with fists, clubs, swords or guns. Only area-affect attacks such as a torch affect it. Each point of aggravated damage inflicted by a flame or other applicable attack halves the swarm’s Size. Once the swarm is reduced to a two-yard radius, the vampire has no choice but to return to his original form (at which point he must check for a fear frenzy, Vampire: The Requiem, pp. 179-180).

Drawback: Fragmenting the body is not a sane action. For eight hours after changing to a swarm form, the Gangrel suffers from the Irrationality derangement and must make Resolve + Composure checks accordingly to resist giving into that lunacy. If the character already suffers from the mild version, he suffers the severe malady (Multiple Personality) instead. These derangements are found in the World of Darkness Rulebook, pp. 99-100.

Prerequisite: Covenant Status (Carthians)

Your character has been trained to fight cooperatively, as a member of a tactical unit instead of just a lone brawler. Originally developed by anarchist demonstrators to overwhelm armed and protected (but outnumbered) police, Swarm Tactics offer Carthians distinct advantages against battle-Disciplined Kindred or other foes.

Dots purchased in this Merit allow access to special combat maneuvers. Each maneuver is a prerequisite for the next. So, your character can’t have “Unexpected Strike” until he has “Feint.” The maneuvers and their effects are detailed below. All can be used with either Brawl or Weaponry.

Feint (•): You may declare that you’re making a Feint, and then roll a normal Brawl or Weaponry attack against a single opponent. If the roll succeeds, it does no damage, but anyone else who attacks that opponent can use Unexpected Strike if he knows how. The opponent is vulnerable until the end of the turn.

Unexpected Strike (••): If you attack someone who has successfully been fooled by a Feint, you can take 9 Again with your attack, even if the weapon you’re using typically allows only 10 Again. If you attack someone who has been fooled by two Feints, you can take 8 Again as well.

As the boundaries between the psyches of Kindred in a House blur, the Kindred may develop a truly remarkable ability to channel one another’s personalities — and powers of the blood. This very rare benefit of the House connection takes a great deal out of the Kindred who uses this Merit, but it can allow a vampire to pull a trick or two out of his hat that his enemies would never have anticipated. A character with this Merit can gain brief access to one Skill or non-physical Discipline possessed by his House’s slumbering member. To invoke the psycho-sanguine connection, the character must spend one Vitae and one Willpower point as an instant action while within range of the torpid member (as determined by his dots in the Speaker for the Absent Merit).

To use a torpid member’s Skill, the character then simply forms a dice pool using his own Attribute paired with the Skill and Specialty (if any) of his torpid partner. Notice that this may allow a character to temporarily access a Skill with more than six dots. For the rest of the scene, the character may take a number of actions using that Skill equal to his dots in this Merit.

To use the Discipline of a torpid partner, the character must use the dice pool of the vampire whose power he is tapping, with a –5 penalty imposed by the murky conduit of the blood. This penalty is reduced by one for each dot the invoker has in this Merit. Only a single Discipline power may be invoked in this way before the connection must be invoked again. Only the Disciplines of Animalism, Dominate, Majesty, Nightmare and Obfuscate can be used in this way. The Discipline power’s cost in Vitae or Willpower must be paid separately from the cost for invoking this Merit.

Those Damned who have survived long Requiems often grow to a troubling point: the Beast can only be satisfied by consuming Vitae stolen from the bodies of other vampires. This Merit can offer a somewhat “extended menu” for vampires of that age and Blood Potency by allowing a Kindred character to consume another type of blood in addition to Vitae. The vampire can still drink Vitae from other Damned, yes, but each instance of this Merit allows the character to add one more supernatural source of blood to the menu. She may possess Taste of the Strange (Werewolves), which allows her to get her fix from both the undead and from the shapechanging Lupines. Other sources may include mages, changelings, Prometheans, demons, or any other horror of the night that the Storyteller rules appropriate. The player may purchase this Merit up to four times, but only once at each stage of Blood Potency starting at Blood Potency 7 (so, the character may buy it again at 8, 9, and 10).

Drawback: Getting blood from such creatures is by no means easy. In addition, the blood of other supernatural creatures is not always kind to a Kindred’s system or mind. The Storyteller is encouraged to come up with unique effects from consuming blood from other monsters. Hallucinations are not uncommon.

Some vampires do not sleep quite as deeply as others. Your character clings to the waking world with a desperate hold. You gain a +2 bonus for your character to awaken from torpor or daytime slumber due to external threats. In the event of being disturbed while in torpor, your character must still have been in such a state for at least the base time indicated by his Humanity (Vampire: the Requiem, p. 176).

Turan placed the three curses on the ancient vampire houses to teach the believers, not to punish them. The three curses show the way to better serve the blood gods and in turn, better the Requiems of all vampires. The rigorous teachings known as the Enlightened Code of the Lawgiver are thought to have been developed by a member of the Ordo Dracul in 19th-century Delaware. Obsessed with the vampiric traditions and shot through with Kindred chauvinism, the Enlightened Code is the most “scientific” of the moral teachings set forth by those who revere the Lasa. The Enlightened Code is also notorious for driving its more weak-willed adherents into intractable depths of madness.

Based on strict adherence to ‘vampire law,’ the Code revolves around the immutability of the vampiric Traditions. Even the Ordo Dracul has not openly defied that core set of beliefs, for they are more ingrained in vampiric nature than the fear of daylight. If vampires could cleave wholeheartedly to the Traditions and to one another, their Requiems would no longer be plagued with trite psychological tribulations. The blood gods do not want us to suffer; they want us to unlock the mysteries of life and death and they have shown us how we must “live.” Known as “Abiders,” those who follow the Enlightened Code of the Lawgiver study with religious devotion the nature of death and the strange state of torpor. Hoping to scour themselves of mortal qualities, Abiders do not fear Final Death even though they know nothing but oblivion awaits them. By becoming “pure” vampires, they set an example for all Kindred to seek knowledge of the Lasa and themselves.

Pledging (•): If an Abider’s action or inaction while protecting or enforcing the Traditions causes him to make a degeneration check, he receives +1 die on the roll. Enabling another vampire to violate the Traditions in a scene — or violating them himself — costs an Abider one Willpower point.

Testifying (••): An Abider may use his dots in this Merit in place of her Humanity to determine the length of voluntary torpor. In the event of involuntary torpor, consider the Abider’s Humanity rating to be two dots higher, to a maximum of eight dots, when determining the length of her death-sleep.

Affirming (•••): An Abider gains +2 dice on rolls to resist fear frenzy. If an Abider attempts to “ride the wave” in a scene, he loses one Willpower point.

Binding (••••): An Abider may spend a Willpower point to gain one automatic success on one roll to resist fear frenzy. If an Abider succumbs to fear frenzy in a scene, she loses one Willpower point.

The Red Path teaches that the primordial blood gods were, in fact, the first vampires and, in turn, created all modern vampires. Followers of the red or Eastern path are often known as Seekers. Unlike the Lasa’s lesser offspring, the blood of the Lasa was pure and never weakened through the ages; Seekers look for the secret that will allow them to attain a similar god-like state. Emulating the tales of the blood gods, Seekers long for the power of a never-diminishing Blood Potency and aggressively perfect the powers of their blood. Aeshma’s devotees spend long hours practicing with their blood-fueled powers and take great pleasure in having to feed as often as they can.

Seekers also acknowledge the Beast as the whispering voice of the blood god Aeshma and hone their ability to listen to the Beast without succumbing to it. Frenzy is seen as a transcendent state akin to possession, and those who can ride the wave of frenzy are highly regarded by the followers of the Eastern path. While Seekers respect all of the Lasa, Aeshma is seen as the Seekers’ patron and benefactor. Sometimes accused of being a diablerie cult, the priests of Aeshma actually see diablerie as an unworthy shortcut that betrays the third curse, for they are tasked with gathering mortal blood. But a degenerate few look to the example set by the tale of Ilmaku’s murder; to them, the blood belongs to those who can take it.

Questing (•): If a Seeker’s actions while feeding off a mortal cause the Seeker to make a degeneration check, he receives +1 die on the roll. This bonus cannot apply if the feeding occurs after the degeneration check is called for. Failing to investigate the origins of vampire kind or denying the blood god’s role in vampire genesis in a scene costs the Seeker one Willpower point.

Finding (••): When a believer rides the wave of frenzy, he receives an additional +1 die bonus to all Physical actions, in addition to the frenzy’s usual benefits.

Becoming (•••): Seekers receive a +2 die bonus to resist the effects of blood addiction, but not a Vinculum. Drinking animal blood in a scene (rather than human) costs a Seeker one Willpower point.

Unleashing (••••): If actions taken in frenzy cause a Seeker to make a degeneration check, he receives +2 die on the roll. The Seeker cannot regain Willpower from his Virtue if his actions benefit a mortal.

Prerequisite: Covenant Status (Carthians)

A group of this nature might be a formalized gang in one city, a group that meets for a weekly poker night in another or just some guys who know the right bar for playing pool and hearing gossip. Characters with The Right Bar Merit hear the word on the street, not because they seek it out, but because they’re right on the street there with it.

When making rolls with the Streetwise Skill, characters who have this Merit may reroll 9s as well as 10s.

Prerequisite: Covenant Status (Carthians)

No director likes a pale, dead-eyed Desdemona, particularly if she can’t make matinee performances. An undead actor going on with the show even after her Requiem begins isn’t impossible, but it’s challenging. Thus, many of them turn to other vampires. Some domains have complete societies of Kindred theaters performing Kindred-penned plays that touch on Kindred themes for exclusive Kindred audiences. There aren’t many, however. More commonly, performances and troupes are small. Those who want to perform in mortal plays can find few better allies than a Kindred theater society. Providing, of course, that they haven’t found bitter rivals there.

When making rolls with the Expression Skill, characters who have this Merit may reroll 9s as well as 10s.

Tomb is to Haven as a vault is to a padlock. While both provide some measure of security, a Tomb is nearly impregnable. Tombs in ancient Egypt and Babylon were built beneath havens as a matter of survival. Throughout history, the Damned have needed a place where they could sleep without fear of discovery. Grave-diggers, miners and archeologists bent on raiding sacred resting places could not be allowed access to a Kindred’s greatest secrets, so added security was necessary.

• 1 room, earthen, with a crawlspace leading to primary haven
•• 2 rooms, some furnishings and a tunnel leading to primary haven
••• 3 rooms, furnished, security measures in place with multiple tunnels leading to the primary haven
•••• 4+ rooms, comfortably furnished, extensive security measures with multiple tunnel system leading to various locations, including primary haven

In order for an intruder to access a Tomb, he must first gain entrance to the vampire’s Haven (and cope with any Haven Security measures that the vampire has in place). From there, any rolls to find or gain ingress to the Tomb suffer a negative modifier equal to the vampire’s rating in Haven Security + the vampire’s rating in the Tomb Merit.

For example, a vampire with Haven (Size 1, Security 2) and Tomb 2 has taken over the basement of an apartment building. The basement is small, but serviceable, and the undead inhabitant has taken measures to hide his presence and keep intruders out. He has also dug a tunnel into the nearby sewer system and found a disused room with thick concrete walls — his Tomb. Anyone who breaches his Haven suffers a -4 modifier to find and gain entrance to the Tomb.

In addition, a vampire can seal the Tomb from the inside. This doubles the Tomb rating for purposes of figuring this modifier. In the example above, if the vampire decides to go into torpor in this Tomb, anyone trying to get in suffers a -6 to all attempts (Haven Security 2 + [Tomb 2 x 2]).

Drawback: No matter how secure the Tomb, once it’s breached, it’s breached. Tombs might have multiple escape routes, but once a Tomb has been discovered, it’s compromised. The player can add half the Tomb rating to the Haven’s Size (rounding up), but the security modifiers are forfeit.

The connection between the vampires of a dynastic House allows torpid members to perceive the trusted and familiar voice of fellow House Kindred, even through the rush of frightening visions and memories that come with torpor, like drowned-out shouts through a waterfall of blood. Torpid Kindred are not truly aware of the vague communication they participate in through this connection — the words they hear are swallowed by the shadows of cursed sleep — but they may respond by “talking in their sleep” all the same. Only the voice of a character with this Merit can penetrate the dead ears of a torpid vampire; witnesses to the consultation go unheard by the subject.

A character who purchases this Merit is presumed to have a torpor connection with another vampire, but the connection is one-sided. For a shared connection, both vampires must purchase this Merit. Two-sided torpor connections do not have to be balanced.

Without this Merit, speaking to a torpid vampire has little reliable effect. With it, your character may consult with his trusted, slumbering kin to gain advice, facts and other bits of information. In many cases, this consultation is awkward and imprecise, but straightforward questions may be heard and answered without an action, at the Storyteller’s discretion. Generally speaking, the more dots in the Torpor Connection, the clearer the messages whispered by the torpid vampire.

If it becomes necessary to gauge this connection mechanically, the questioning character should make a Presence + Empathy roll. This dice pool suffers a –5 penalty due to the fog of torpor, but each dot the character has in his Torpor Connection reduces the penalty by one. Each success on this roll allows the character to receive the answer to one question asked of his torpid ally.

A character with this Merit also has a chance to rouse a partner in involuntary torpor without donating Vitae of the correct potency. To do so, the character must feed two Vitae of vampire blood to the torpid subject and attempt a Presence + Empathy roll. This dice pool gains a +2 bonus if the character and his subject share a blood bond. If the result is an exceptional success, the torpid vampire can choose to awaken or remain in his dead sleep. Anything less than an exceptional success merely invokes the benefits described above.

This Merit may be purchased multiple times to gain a connection with other Kindred, one per purchase.

Followers of Athtar’s way trace the origins of their current beliefs to a small fortress at the base of Mont Blanc in the French Alps. The basic principles of the Athtari were most likely formulated by an insulated group of heretical Lancea Sanctum scholars in the early Middle Ages. Their spiritual forebears only spread beyond those lands due to the persecution of their mortal herd and the destruction of their ‘monastery’ during the late Renaissance. Athtari, sometimes called Purists, believe that all of the blood gods are but representations of Athtar and that greater division came about by the intrusion of local beliefs. The true believer must return to the fundamentals of the faith, and all of the many names must be revealed as masks worn by the one Creator. According to the Purists, Athtar cast off his own flesh and transcended to the spiritual world. Seven tribes of men were given the god’s sinful skin in seven portions to safeguard it against Athtar’s many enemies. But each tribe was in turn overwhelmed by their own vices and devoured the god flesh.

After their feast, they were forever changed. They lusted for living blood, and each tribe bore their sin as a mark on their soul. When Athtar returned to the physical world, he chided them for their misdeeds, for those who ate of his flesh and blood would forever be denied entrance into the living world of spirits. Instead they would be trapped on the corpse world of material things, at best a prison constructed to test the virtuous. Now the tribes were as Athtar, dying every morning only to awake at sunset hungry for red blood.

Trapped in the land of misery, the tribes formed a pact in the name of Athtar to become the guardians of the spiritual world and safeguard their god from the unworthy. Only the virtuous would transcend beyond this world and the tribes would test the living with the transient temptations of the rotting world. Purists aspire to gratify their every impulse and overindulge their every vain whim, hoping their avarice and gluttony will tempt or provoke others into similarly condemning themselves to the physical world. Since the damned tribes are forever locked out of the spiritual world, they must make their paradise on Earth.

Initiation (•): If a Purist’s action or inaction while fulfilling his Vice causes him to make a degeneration check, the Purist receives a +1 die bonus on the roll. Acting modestly, altruistically or otherwise giving of himself without gain during a scene costs a Purist one Willpower point.

Acquiescence (••): No matter how cruel or callous a believer becomes, her intimate knowledge of human weakness gives her leverage when manipulating mortals. Athtari Social dice pools involving mortals are limited to a number of dice equal to the vampire’s Humanity plus two.

Glorification (•••): Athtari regain Willpower as if they had the Vice of Greed in addition to their own Vices. If this is already the vampire’s Vice, then he regains two Willpower when he fulfills it instead of one.

Liberation (••••): A Purist requires only six experience points to buy back a Willpower dot expended to Embrace a mortal.

Certainly not every Nosferatu lurks and lingers beneath the ground, and even those that do rarely make it a permanent home. They still have apartments, or live in gutted water-towers or in some teetering Victorian at the edge of the city.

However, some do live and lurk in the subterranean darkness for weeks on end, and over time they become accustomed to this place of forever night, an underground strata where sunlight never comes.

Those so accustomed needn’t actually slumber when the sun rises. The Nosferatu can still feel when the sun rises, however: his muscles tighten, his skin grows a bit waxy, a bit tough. This only applies when the Nosferatu is at least 30 feet below the surface of the world above and runs no chance of seeing the sun. Sewer tunnels that open up to the street still could have faint shafts of sunlight poking through: but the tunnels beneath the tunnels likely have never seen that kind of light. If the character is in an area where the sun touches or has touched even in a tiny way, the pull is too deep, and he must find a place to slumber or go deeper to remain conscious.

At sunrise, the Nosferatu still expends a single Vitae as if waking for the first time that night: his muscles unclench, his skin eases.

Drawback: While active during the day, the Nosferatu is at half his normal Speed (round up). In addition, a Haunt character possessing this Merit is especially harmed by sunlight. The Nosferatu suffers +1 Health point per turn when exposed to any of the sun’s rays (see “Sunlight,” pp. 170-171, Vampire: The Requiem).

A woman’s menstruation has in some primal societies or traditions been tied to the lunar cycles, to the tides, to magic as a sacrifice of blood. It represents a woman at the height of her power: she is fertile and capable of the creation of life, symbolized by the seemingly supernatural ability to bleed without being weakened or dying. It’s also a grave taboo in many cultures, particularly those that are male-dominated. The blood is seen as threatening. It is indicated as shameful, arguably because men seek to repress (or simply not admit to) a woman’s power. It is blood that an infant does not feed upon; it is blood that leaves the body and does not create life. For some, that is frightening.

Some Savages still bleed like this regardless of (or more appropriately, in spite of) their unliving state. The blood that flows is black, thick, a musky elixir. It does not come once a month as it does with humans, but instead flows whenever the vampire wills it: by expending a point of Vitae, she may expunge this undead menses from her body.

The blood expelled in such a way has a few different functions: if used in the blood magic of Crùac, it grants the Savage a +1 bonus to the roll to empower the ritual. If fed to a mortal being, it acts as a mild hallucinogen (-1 to all relevant dice pools) in addition to providing the other effects intrinsic to Vitae. Finally, the blood itself acts as a potent marker for other Savages or those with Auspex. Marking an area with the blood gives off a heady aroma long after the blood dries or is washed away (for a number of weeks equal to the marking vampire’s Resolve score). If a Gangrel vampire or a vampire possessing any dots in Auspex comes across that mark during this time, the vampire’s player may roll Wits + Survival to sense the mark and its nature. Some Gangrel use their undead menses to write messages in this way (symbols or short words) to their brethren.

Drawback: The vampire can only access this undead menses once per day for “free.” Gaining the blood (i.e. more than a single point of Vitae expelled) more than once per day is possible, but the vampire feels her insides twist up and cinch, as if something has been damaged. And it has; she takes one point of aggravated damage per point of Vitae menses expelled beyond the first.

The Nosferatu is ghost-touched, literally acting as a specter’s anchor in this world. Why is this? It’s most likely because the ghost is tied somehow to the Nosferatu. If the Nosferatu claimed the person as a victim accidentally, that person may continue in this world, fettered to the Haunt. The ghost may have once been a member of the Nosferatu’s own family, perhaps even a wife or a child that “lives on” as a specter, bound to the immortal vampire. It is possible, though, that the ghost has no actual connection to the character. Perhaps the character somehow convinces the ghost that he is someone other than he truly is, or perhaps the specter is grief-struck and lonely and gloms onto the Haunt because it senses a kind of “kinship in death.”

This Merit works similarly to the Retainer Merit (p. 116, World of Darkness Rulebook). Each acquisition of this Merit grants the character one spectral follower that claims him as anchor. Dots spent in the trait indicate the strength and ability of the ghost at hand. One or two dots suggests something akin to the power level of an apparition. Three dots are likely equiva- lent to the dice pools (though not necessarily the demeanor) of a poltergeist. Four dots suggests something on par with a deceiver, while five dots is closer to the level of a skinrider. (All such spectral types can be found on pp. 214-216, World of Darkness Rulebook.) The ghost, however, has a number of Numina equal to the dots purchased in this Merit: no more, no less, regardless of the suggested trait levels.

For the most part, the ghosts do as the Nosferatu bids, though certainly they cannot affect the world as a human retainer would. In addition, the Nosferatu gains no bonuses to communicate with the spirit, and may have to work to get his messages or commands heard (or felt).

Drawback: Ghosts are persistent and somewhat invasive. The ghost will perform tasks as the Nosferatu bids, but keep in mind this is a two-way street. From time to time, the ghost will demand that the Nosferatu do its bidding. It may have an ancient enemy it seeks to dispatch or may want something far simpler, like to have the character visit its grave and put a certain type of flower upon it. A good rough guideline for Storytellers is that for every three commands the Nosferatu gives the ghost, the ghost will give one in return. If the Nosferatu fails to perform such a task, assume that the Merit loses a dot. This loss of a dot might represent the ghost literally losing power, or it might instead indicate that the ghost is unwilling to devote the breadth of its abilities for the Nosferatu’s needs. Dots can be regained through story and the appropriate experience points. If all the dots disappear, assume that the ghost is either gone forever, or is now hostile toward the character.

Many Nosferatu wear masks—literally. Porcelain masks. Plague masks. Gas masks. One Haunt might wear a sacred animal mask (bearing the vicious countenance of a bat or enraged dog), while another might wear something that evokes eerie beauty (perhaps feminine beauty, even on the face of a male Nosferatu). Leather bondage mask? Sure. A plaster death mask of an American president? Could be. A Mexican luchadore mask topped with a knot of real hair, stolen from some victim somewhere? Absolutely.

Why would they wear such masks? Different reasons for different Damned. The Haunts recognize that they’re... bizarre if not necessarily in appearance then in the vampire’s aura, and a mask may help to conceal more overt deformities (though it can also heighten the sense of strangeness, which is fine for many Nosferatu). Others use masks to frighten enemies, given that a freakish ceramic countenance can do a lot to accentuate the terror such a creature causes. Some are shrinking violets and try to hide from the world behind masks. Some... well, they just like the anonymity. A mask allows the Haunt to be someone different. Something new. Perhaps even inhuman.

A normal mask worn by a Nosferatu might offer a minor (+1) equipment bonus: the frozen screeching rictus of a monkey mask might offer +1 to Intimidation, for instance, while a beautiful and delicate dramaturgical mask might grant a +1 to Expression in the right circumstances. That’s all well and good. But it doesn’t require Merit dots.

What does require the purchase of a Merit is what’s called an “Unyielding Mask.” In this case, it’s a mask that’s literally affixed to the face. For the most part, permanently. Perhaps it’s bolted to the face. Or the skin has been peeled back and stitched or stapled to the fabric. Or the Nosferatu used his own Vitae as a coagulant glue, bonding it to his pallid flesh.

It’s important to note that the mask gains its power not simply from being a frightening or beautiful mask, but because it literally bonds with the Nosferatu’s eerie aura and his disturbed flesh.

At three dots, Unyielding Mask protects against any Discipline that attempts to mentally or socially coerce the Nosferatu (Dominate, Majesty, Nightmare), earning the Nosferatu a +2 to the rolls to resist or a -2 to the foe if no such resistance roll is expected. At four dots, the Unyielding Mask allows the Nosferatu to gain a persistent +1 to a Social Skill of the player’s choice. As above, Intimidation and Expression are viable, but so is any Skill. Subterfuge might gain a bonus from a snake-like mask (serpent’s tongue and all that), while Animal Ken might gain its bonus from being soothing or frightening in some primal, wild way.

Drawback: The Unyielding Mask can be targeted and destroyed. Assume that any mask has a Durability of 3 and has a number of Health equal to the Nosferatu’s own, halved (round down). Bashing damage does not affect the Unyielding Mask, but lethal and aggravated do. The Nosferatu cannot heal the mask directly, but the mask does heal one point of damage when the Haunt awakens for the first time in the evening (and expends the single Vitae to do so). If the Mask is destroyed, it confers a single aggravated level of damage to the Nosferatu.

The character regains Willpower through her Vice the way other characters regain it through Virtue — by fulfilling her Vice truly and profoundly, the character may once per session regain all spent Willpower points. It goes the other way, though — now, she can regain a single point of Willpower at a time by briefly fulfilling her Virtue. Elder or historical vampire characters sometimes find that the Beast’s whims have overwhelmed the needs and values of their human side, and this Merit ultimately represents that time in a vampire’s Requiem when her more callous, selfish urges are truly paramount. Giving into one’s Virtue is now little more than paying lip service to it, performing virtuous actions more because they suit one’s needs rather than because they are the “right” thing to do.

Drawback: This isn’t a mechanical drawback so much as a caution to players taking this Merit for their characters: a character who favors Vice over Virtue is more likely to give into the eventual blood-slick slippery slope of Humanity loss.

All members of a House must purchase this Merit for it to be effective. For purposes of determining torpor duration, all vampires of the House are considered to share the Humanity rating of the Kindred with the highest Humanity. If, for example, the vampires of the Tremalions have Humanity ratings of 4, 5 and 7, all of them are considered to have Humanity 7 for the purposes of determining the length of a voluntary or involuntary torpor.

If the highest Humanity of the participants drops while one member is torpid, the length of that torpor must be recalculated using the new highest Humanity in the House. Determine the torpid vampire’s new torpor duration and subtract the time already spent in torpor; that is the Kindred’s rough remaining time to spend in torpor.

Kindred have the opportunity to sample tastes of blood from cultures and people from all over the world. Some vampires sample more than others, and develop a taste for favorite “flavors” in the blood. Your character has evolved such an affinity for a particular rarefaction of mortal blood. Possible examples of your character’s favored Vitae include specific ethnic origins, attractive young men, people who are terrified, or any number of other specific traits. When your character has the opportunity to feed from his preferred victim, he regains a spent point of Willpower, as if he had succumbed to his Vice.

A vampire with this Merit may only regain Willpower this way once per night.

Prerequisite:Daeva

Passion shackles more than the Damned. Many mortals behave just as the Daeva do, without any supernatural calling in their blood.

Once per game session, the Daeva may watch someone else act out the vampire's Vice, and regain 1 Willpower. The rules which govern the mortal regaining Willpower from their own indulgence apply to the vampire as well: the Vice must be indulged fully, and at some risk to the character. Simply watching two mortals have sex won't give a vampire any Wilpower back. On the other hand, watching a man have sex with his sister-in-law while his brother is downstairs cleaning the gun certainly qualifies.

The Vice of the mortal does not matter. The Daeva must watch the act more or less to completion. She doesn't have to watch an accountant fudge every row of a ledger, but she needs to be there when he perpetrates his initial fraud, or when he finally comes to claim his ill-gotten gains. She can be a participant in the act; in fact, at •••, the Daeva must actively corupt or tempt the mortal in order to receive Willpower. At •••••, the vampire need merely observe the act from beginning to end. However, it must be the mortal himself who is moved to temptation, and the mortal himself who is at risk. The vampire regains no Willpower if she has received Willpower from another source during the same scene.

This Merit reflects the degree to which identities begin to merge when Kindred become part of a cyclical dynasty. Telling (or forcing) the Kindred to do anything that would harm or betray a member of his House is tantamount to asking him to perform that same action against himself. Telling him to kill a member of his House is equivalent to telling him to commit suicide, for example. All rolls to compel the Kindred to take an action that threatens or endangers his House allies (through Skills, Disciplines, magic or any other means) are automatically modified as though the character had spent a Willpower point. That is, either the character’s dice pool to resist such compulsions gets a +3 bonus or the character’s Resistance Trait is temporarily increased by 2. Likewise, the character gains these bonuses when a member of his House attempts to betray, mislead or lie to him.