Merits are special capabilities or knacks that add individuality to your character. They’re purchased during character creation or with experience points over the course of your chronicle.
The Merits in this chapter are organized alphabetically into three broad categories: Physical, Mental and Social. Some apply to your character’s basic traits to enhance them in particular situations. Some have prerequisites that must be met before they can be purchased. For example, a character with the Gunslinger Merit must have a Dexterity of 3 and Firearms of 3 or higher to be able to accurately fire two weapons at the same time. By the same token, some Merits apply drawbacks that balance out their inherent advantages. A character with the Fame Merit, for example, is treated like a star wherever he goes — but has a hard time blending into the crowd when he wants to.
Each Merit has a number of dots (•) associated with it. These dots represent the number of points that must be spent to purchase the Merit. Some Merits allow for a range of dots (say, • to •••). These allow you to purchase a low rating if it’s appropriate to your character concept, or you can start with a low level and increase it over time with experience points.
A character is born with some Merits or develops them early in life, while others can be acquired through trail and error, training and effort later in life.
The first kind can be acquired at character creation only and are labeled as such. The second kind can be acquired during play with experience points.
Merit dots must be purchased sequentially with experience points. You have to buy • and then •• before your character can have ••• or more.
One particular animal species never seems to mind your character’s presence and reacts with remarkable favor when he tries to interact with them. Cats are always friendly, or wolves accept him as one of the pack.
Each dot in this Merit adds a +1 modifier to all Social rolls made to influence or understand the chosen species of animal. Characters may purchase this Merit multiple times to affect multiple species.
Special: Skinchangers who take this Merit for their totem animal treat the one-dot version as the two-dot version and the two-dot version as three dots. They cannot purchase the three-dot version of this Merit.
Indulging one’s need to change form and spend time as an animal can be… difficult, especially for an urban skinchanger. Unless your character lives in the middle of nowhere and all by himself, there’s still the chance that someone will be in the wrong place at the wrong time and see him change, and in the city it’s near impossible to find real privacy.
This Merit represents a place that your character knows about where no one else ever goes. It might be the shack Old Man Grezny used for moonshine back during Prohibition, or the ancient and abandoned Allied Products factory down the street. Whatever this hidden place is, the character can access it in near-absolute secrecy and squirrel away her little trinkets without fear of detection. A skinchanger can also shapechange there and head out to experience her animal side, confident that no one’s watching.
When someone tries to track her back to her den, in animal or human form, that person suffers a –2 penalty to all relevant rolls.
Something about your character reminds people and animals of the predators that hunt them. A human feels a base fear in his reptilian brain that catches his breath or causes hairs to stand up on the back of his head. Animals stand stock still, watching the character out of the corner of an eye, ready to run should she step close.
This Merit adds +1 die to any Social roll that would benefit from such unease. Intimidation benefits most directly from this Merit, but some forms of Expression (reciting black, actually frightening poetry or appearing to be a “dangerous” rock star), Persuasion (fear can make for an exciting seduction) and Socialize (the cool kid who gathers the crowd can be disturbingly scary at times) are all viable Skills. The bonus from Predator’s Bearing can apply to animals, if appropriate.
Skinchangers who emulate carnivorous or impressive animals commonly take this Merit.
Drawback: This isn’t something that a character can just turn on or off. Many other Social rolls suffer a penalty because of the character’s nerve-wracking habits. Any Social action that such a demeanor would make more difficult suffers a –1 penalty. The character’s efforts to sing a sweet song or act the waif must first overcome her natural “hungry” tendencies. People are often reluctant to deal with someone who frightens them (not everybody’s turned on by the thrill of dangerous partners). And creepy people receive more scrutiny, which they can ill afford when trying to lie.
Special: Creatures that are already top predators in their regions (such as lions on the savannah) are unafraid of other predators. Character with this Merit cannot apply it against such creatures. This includes supernaturally-enhanced predators, such as vampires or werewolves.
Whether natural or carefully cultivated, your character is easy to overlook. Socially, he’s ignorable or of negligible importance. He’s not necessarily forgettable. People are as apt to remember him as they are anyone else, if they even notice him in the first place. Even when they do look at him, he usually weighs in as “unthreatening.”
Mechanically, the character gains a +1 modifier to Subterfuge and Stealth rolls, since people are paying less attention to him, and thus his lies and his attempts to go unnoticed. Some other Skills may also benefit from this Merit, at the Storyteller’s discretion. There are times when being small could benefit a player in Politics or someone using Streetwise.
More generally, people with this Merit register as someone whom people don’t need to pay attention to. The character gets chosen last for kickball, but the police don’t pick him up while looking for the usual suspects. Shopkeepers who are strict about loiterers consider him a non-issue. People and creatures who get nervous around others feel a little less so when it’s just him. Even prey animals react a little less to his presence. This amounts to a –1 penalty to the Wits + Composure rolls to notice this character as a detail.
Skinchangers who emulate small or prey animals commonly take this Merit.
Drawback: Even when the character wants to be noticed, he’s still overlookable or unimportant. Waiting with others to get customer service’s attention, everyone else successfully shouts over him. No one really takes his threats seriously, even when he means them. This applies a –1 penalty to Expression, Intimidation and Socialize rolls, as well as any other actions the Storyteller deems appropriate.