Advantages and Flaws

Merits

Allowed

Linguistics •-••••• (Core p.179)

Each dot in Linguistics allows the character to fluently speak, write, and read one additional language besides those two default languages. Characters who are local to South Africa may take an additional language for free.

Characters that are local may take an additional language for free, regardless of if they possess this Merit or not.

Beautiful •• Looks (Core p.179)

You add one extra die to all appropriate Social dice pools.

Stunning •••• Looks (Core p.179)

You add two extra dice to all appropriate Social dice pools, as above.

High-Functioning Addict • Substance Use (Core p.180)

You add one die to any one category of pool (specify when you choose which substance you use) when the last person you fed from was on your drug.

Bond Resistance •-••• Bonding (Core p.181)

Your Blood rebels against control. Add one die to your dice pools to resist a Blood Bond per level you take of this Merit (maximum three).

Short Bond •• Bonding (Core p.181)

Blood Bonds on you lose their Bond strength more rapidly than normal, decreasing at both the full moon and new moon (i.e., by two each month) if not reinforced.

Unbondable ••••• Bonding (Core p.181)

You cannot be Blood Bound. If you’re ever short of cash, you can probably sell your vitae to alchemists, too.

Bloodhound • Feeding (Core p.182)

You can smell the Resonance of a human’s blood without tasting it. You still need to be within olfactory range of the person. Make a Resolve + Awareness test at Difficulty 3. Increase Difficulty for perfume or distance; lower it for more intimate contact.

Iron Gullet ••• Feeding (Core p.182)

You can feed from cold blood, rancid blood, and fractionated plasma. None of these provide Resonances. Ventrue may not take this Merit.

Eat Food •• Mythic (Core p.182)

You can consume food without effort and might even enjoy it, though it gives no nourishment and must be expelled before resting for the day.

Backgrounds

Allowed

Allies •-•••• (Core pp.184-185)

Allies are mortals who support and help you: family, friends, or even a mortal organization that owes you some loyalty. Although Allies usually aid you willingly, without coaxing or coercion, they are not always available to offer assistance; they have their own concerns and can do only so much for the sake of your relationship. Usually, Allies appear about once per story. Allies will not use Reliability.

Contacts •-••• (Core pp.185-186)

A Contact is someone in an excellent position to get information. They might be a police dispatcher, rather than a homicide lieutenant, or a congressional staffer, rather than a senator. Information brokers, gossip columnists, underworld fixers, and reporters make excellent Contacts.

Fame •-••••• (Core pp.186-187)

Each level of Fame subtracts one from the Difficulty of Social tests against your fans and from many hunting tests, depending on your predation strategy – you have less trouble attracting prey. In some circumstances, the Storyteller may allow you to use Fame in a Social test dice pool instead of another Trait, especially to get into an otherwise exclusive venue or event. “Do you know who I am?” doesn’t work everywhere, but it does work.

Influence •-••••• (Core pp.187-188)

Influence applies most within one group or region of your city. Groups can be large, even diffuse: organized crime, media, religion, the police, city government, etc. The Storyteller may require you to use Influence in place of a Trait in some dice pools, particularly Social tests attempting to sway minor bureaucrats or the equivalent in your group. This Background helps you have an “abandoned” building demolished (or preserved), not start global wars.

Herd •-••••• (Core pp.189-190)

Mask •-•• (Core p.190)

Cobbler • Mask (Core p.191)

Zeroed • Mask (Core p.191)

Mawla •-••••• (Core pp.192-193)

Resources •-••••• (Core p.193)

Retainers •-••• (Core p.194)

Status •-••••• (Core p.194)

Flaws

Allowed

Illiterate •• (Core p.179)

You cannot read or write. Your Academics and Science Skills are capped at 1, and you can have no specialty in them incorporating modern knowledge.

Ugly • Looks (Core p.179)

You lose one die from all relevant Social dice pools.

Repulsive •• Looks (Core p.179)

You lose two dice from all relevant Social dice pools.

Addiction • Substance Use (Core p.180)

Lose one dice from all pools when the last person you fed from was not on your drug, except pools for actions that will immediately obtain your drug.

Hopeless Addiction •• Substance Use (Core p.179)

Lose two dice from all pools when the last person you fed from was not on your drug, except pools for actions that will immediately obtain your drug.

Bond Junkie • Bonding (Core p.181)

The Bond feels sweeter to you once it happens. Subtract one die from your dice pools to act against a Blood Bond.

Long Bond • Bonding (Core p.181)

Blood Bonds on you lose their Bond strength more slowly than normal, decreasing by one for each three months without being reinforced.

Bondslave •• Bonding (Core p.180)

You bond instantly with the taste of another’s vitae; only one drink of blood binds you, not three. Either you begin as your sire’s thrall, or consult with the Storyteller to come up with a reason that first bond has broken.

Methuselah's Thirst • Feeding (Core p.181)

Your Hunger can only be fully slaked by the blood of supernatural creatures. (Alchemists may be able to thicken the Blood of thin-bloods enough to sate you.) Otherwise, it constantly remains at a minimum of 1. (Or higher, depending on Blood Potency (see p. 215).

Banned

Living in the Past • Archaic (Core p.180)

You haven’t grasped the modern mindset, or you just don’t want to. You have one or more seriously outdated Convictions, e.g. “The Pope’s word is law,” “Women are delicate flowers,” “Lower classes exist only to serve,” or “Burn your enemies’ baggage.” These archaic moralities maintain your Humanity but are odious to many; you lose one die from Social test dice pools involving such archaic beliefs except with vampires your age and older, who may admire your steadfast virtue.

Archaic •• Archaic (Core p.180)

You haven’t been able to adapt to the present, or you have been long in torpor. You cannot use computers or cell phones, and your Technology rating is permanently 0. The Storyteller may penalize other dice pools involving very modern technology by one die.

Stake Bait •• Mythic (Core p.183)

You meet Final Death when staked through the heart, rather than entering torpor.