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.
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.
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.
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).
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 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.
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.
Your character believes. He’s experienced something in his unlife that allows him great faith in something — a god, a cause, or a goal. His zeal is obvious to anyone he encounters, and this can work for or against him. This Merit provides two effects, one public and one personal.
The public effect is that your character can influence those around him. The player gains a +1 to Social rolls where the character’s zeal would be helpful. If the character is a fervent Christian, for instance, the player could apply this bonus to whip up church support for the character’s cause.
The personal effect is that your character can substitute his Resolve rating for a lesser Attribute score once per chapter. For instance, in a fight, the character might substitute his Resolve rating for his Strength in order to strike down an unbeliever. In a debate, he might substitute his Resolve for his Manipulation to doggedly cling to his points, even in the face of opposing logic.
Drawback: Zeal is often mistaken for (or equated with) fanaticism, which instantly turns off some people. Depending upon the group that your character is attempting to influence, this Merit could lead to either admiration or contempt. The player applies a -1 penalty when dealing with people who do not share the character’s convictions. In addition, if the player fails a Social roll (other than an Intimidation roll) using this Merit, all further attempts to deal with the same targets suffer a -3 modifier, as the vampire appears over zealous.