> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://wiki.capetownvtm.com/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://wiki.capetownvtm.com/material-availability/advantages-and-flaws/haven-advantages-and-flaws.md).

# Haven Advantages and Flaws

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<summary><mark style="color:red;"><strong>Haven •-••• (Core p.188)</strong></mark></summary>

Like all Backgrounds, the Haven Background is entirely optional. A vampire with no dots in Haven has a suicide’s grave, a room in an abandoned motel, a rented office, or an apartment with windows blacked out with plastic bags. They can still remain safe and hidden by day in this relatively small and insecure haven by default. The Storyteller may allow a player character to default a somewhat better haven from another Background such as Resources, Status, or Influence. Of course, if those Backgrounds go away, so does the character’s nice haven.

A character with none of those other Backgrounds, however, can still have a perfectly reasonable haven as long as they have this Background. For instance, a character might not have enough money to afford a 20-room Victorian mansion in today’s economy, but if their great-grandmother left them one that had been fully paid for, there’s no reason they can’t remain in residence as it slowly dilapidates.

Base ratings in Haven abstract the haven’s size, security, and privacy. All of those factors affect the chance of spotting, penetrating, and surveilling the vampire’s actual resting place. Add +1 to the Difficulty of, or one die to dice pools resisting, such efforts for each dot of base Haven rating.

Kindred know their havens intimately. For each dot of base Haven rating, add one per dot to dice pools to notice danger (including awakening rolls, p. 219) while in your haven.

• Small haven, but more secure and private than the default. Examples: basement apartment, crypt, locked storeroom in a warehouse.

•• Good size, security, or privacy. Examples: a single-family home or row house, wolf enclosure at the zoo, branch sewer tunnel.

••• Very large, secure, or private. Examples: a compound outside town, a bank building, a decommissioned subway station.

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<summary><mark style="color:red;"><strong>No Haven • (Core p.188)</strong></mark></summary>

You must go to some effort (at least a basic test) to find a new resting place every morning.

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## Merits

You can add Merits and Flaws to your Haven if you wish. They stack with the base Haven rating to produce the total dots in this Background for projects and other uses.

Remember, you can make Haven a shared Background among your coterie – easily the best way to afford a Haven with lots of features.

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<summary><mark style="color:purple;"><strong>Armored •</strong></mark> <mark style="color:purple;"><strong>(Live From the Succubus Club p.25)</strong></mark></summary>

**Prerequisite:** [<mark style="color:purple;">Mobile</mark>](#mobile-live-from-the-succubus-club-p.25)

You’re taking no chances with your haven, taking pains to reinforce panels, locks, and tires, and swapping out the glass for something more resistant to whatever gets thrown at it. The vehicle continues running perfectly until it sustains ten points of damage, while only Critical Hits penetrate sufficiently to affect passengers.

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<summary><mark style="color:red;"><strong>Business Establishment ••-••• (Players Guide p.112)</strong></mark></summary>

You rent out your haven to a separate business: a 9–5 call center, coffee shop, laundromat, or salon. You might even operate the business yourselves (or with Retainers) as a Corporate coterie (Players Guide p.160) although the Storyteller should avoid turning this game of personal horror into a game of business management horror.

The kine mill around living their daily lives while you sleep in the repurposed storage basement, or one of the server rooms where all of the out of service equipment is stored. The business pays a monthly rent (or profit, if you own it), providing you with a steady stream of funding.

The downside: A lot of strangers walking around, and exposure to local officials, and business taxes that potentially put you very much on the grid. Renting to criminals takes the taxes and paperwork out of the picture, but adds even more exposure to cops and other less pliable criminals. Reduce your base Haven dots by one for pools involving your Haven’s privacy and for security against either financial or criminal intrusion (pick when you choose this Merit).

Dots in this Merit roughly equate to their Resources equivalent, and the Storyteller may let you use its dots instead of Resources if the substitution makes sense. It also adds two dice to pools to do things related to your business’ activities or core competency, to interact with other local businesses, and to tests of preparedness to already have something you need in the moment (Core p.410). Businesses have inventory and supply closets, after all.

However, if something happens to your Haven, you don’t have those Resource-like dots any more: no money comes into your pool hall if it burns down or if the FBI closes it off as a crime scene. You may want to take “regular” Resources dots as a backup. They don’t stack: a two-dot Business Establishment plus two dots in Resources means you have two Middle Class income streams; you’re not four-dot Wealthy.

•• Your haven’s business is a thriving local concern or national chain outlet.

••• Your haven’s business is a dominant local concern or an office of an international company. Perhaps you have a few floors of a skyscraper, or an office building near the airport, or even a pier and warehouses on the docks where you collect fees from ships and shippers alike.

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<summary><mark style="color:purple;"><strong>Cell • (Core p.189)</strong></mark></summary>

**Prerequisite:** Haven 2+

Your haven has a dedicated, locked place to store two prisoners, with a base Difficulty to escape of 5. Each extra dot either allows you to store twice as many prisoners (up to a maximum of 32, only in very large havens) or adds +1 to the escape Difficulty. This Merit is not available in small havens.

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<summary><mark style="color:red;"><strong>Furcus •-••• (Players Guide p.112)</strong></mark></summary>

Your haven lies over a knot or fork in the veins of the Earth, or a frayed spot in the Veil. While invisible to normal sight (though not perhaps to Auspex or various Rituals), it underlies a prominent area: the top of a staircase, a fountain in the garden, the center of a room. (Intelligence + Occult might allow someone to deduce its location, if they know what they’re looking for.) Kindred feel the pull of magical energies at the site, and kine often feel nervous or nauseated. Blood Sorcery Rituals, Oblivion Ceremonies, or Thin-Blood Alchemy (pick when you take this Advantage) tap into the furcus’ power.

Each dot in this Merit adds one die to Ritual (or Ceremonial) dice pools used at the furcus. (At the Storyteller’s discretion it may also subtract one die from Social pools used to calm or seduce mortals – or add a die when interacting with mortal hedge magicians or other occult groupies.) Bestial failures on such tests may also lead to especially horrific or eldritch results: energy from the furcus that harms or curses the sorcerer, accidental summoning of an entity, or a clear magical pulse from the haven’s location. Depending on the Ceremony, a total or bestial failure might automatically impose the Haunted Flaw on the haven.

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<summary><mark style="color:red;"><strong>Hidden Armory • (Core p.189)</strong></mark></summary>

Each dot in this Merit adds a stand of arms to your haven’s supply: one pistol and one long firearm, with ammunition. They are as secure from discovery as your resting place.

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<summary><mark style="color:red;"><strong>Holy Ground • (Children of the Blood p.99)</strong></mark></summary>

Your haven exists in a place of significance to your cult. You may keep an apartment once owned by a respected Pater or claimed an alcove in the catacomb where the cult’s founder is said to have slept. Other cultists view you as the custodian of a holy place. Once per story, you may call on a large group of up to ten cultists (half of them armed) to help defend your haven if it’s threatened.

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<summary><mark style="color:purple;"><strong>Laboratory • (Core p.189)</strong></mark></summary>

**Prerequisite:** Haven 2+

Your haven has an equipped laboratory with a dedicated industrial sink, gas jet, reinforced floor, etc. Each dot of this Merit adds one to the dice pool for rolls related to one Science or Technology specialty or to Alchemy dice pools for thin-bloods using the Fixatio method (Core p.284). This Merit is not available in small havens.

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<summary><mark style="color:red;"><strong>Library • (Core p.189)</strong></mark></summary>

Your Haven has a dedicated library on the occult, Cainite legends, city history, vampire lore, or the like. Each dot of this Merit adds one to the dice pool for research rolls for one Academics, Investigation, or Occult specialty. Small havens limit this Merit to a maximum of one dot.

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<summary><mark style="color:red;"><strong>Location • (Core p.189)</strong></mark></summary>

Your haven nestles in one of the most fashionable or otherwise exclusive areas of the city, in the Rack, on a small island, or otherwise in a prime spot. Add two dice (or +2 to foes’ Difficulty) to bonuses on the relevant die rolls from either Chasse (p. 195) or from your base Haven rating (pick one). If neither modifier precisely maps to what you have in mind, work out with your Storyteller when you can expect a two-dice bonus to occur. For example, a Haven close to Elysium might grant a two-dice bonus to Etiquette tests in Elysium and on tests to pick up on court gossip.

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<summary><mark style="color:red;"><strong>Luxury • (Core p.189)</strong></mark></summary>

High-definition flat screens, designer furniture, objets d’art, or other expensive details give you a two-dice bonus to Social tests dealing with mortal guests in your haven. If you don’t have at least three dots of [<mark style="color:purple;">Resources</mark>](https://wiki.capetownvtm.com/material-availability/advantages-and-flaws#resources), your décor was gained illegally.

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<summary><mark style="color:red;"><strong>Machine Shop •+ (Players Guide p.113)</strong></mark></summary>

Your haven has state of the art tools, equipment, and machinery in a dedicated work space, plus supplies of oil, industrial chemicals, gasoline, and other household necessities. Each dot of this Merit adds one to the dice pool for Craft rolls, or to other tests related to building, repairing, or disassembling a piece of machinery or equipment: Intelligence + Firearms (Gunsmithing) to build a Sten submachine gun, Intelligence + Technology to fab a compound crossbow with a 3-D printer, Intelligence + Craft (Engineering) to soup up a car, etc. For particularly recondite machinery, you may have to explain how you sourced it if you don’t have Resources 3 or better.

Small havens with this Merit can only add to pools for one specialty of Craft: they don’t have enough room for a general machine shop or for automotive work.

A three-dot machine shop can include an incinerator; a three-dot machine shop in a large haven can include a car crusher or compactor.

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<summary><mark style="color:red;"><strong>Mobile •-•• (Live From the Succubus Club p.25)</strong></mark></summary>

Your haven is on wheels, wings, or the wide open sea. A one-dot mobile haven may be a car, van, or truck with a sunproof trunk or other compartment for daysleep, or pull a small trailer to carry gear. A two-dot mobile Haven could be an RV, motor coach, or bus. A massive, three-dot mobile haven could be an entire train, jet, or large ship. Coterie dots can be used for this Merit.

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<summary><mark style="color:red;"><strong>Postern • (Core p.189)</strong></mark></summary>

Your Haven has a rear exit, secret tunnel, grating in the cellar leading into the sewers, or other unobtrusive way out. For each dot of this Merit, add one die to your dice pools to evade or escape surveillance near your haven.

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<summary><mark style="color:red;"><strong>Security System • (Core p.189)</strong></mark></summary>

Your haven has a better-than-average security system. For each dot of this Merit, add one die to your dice pool to resist (or alert you to) unauthorized entry into your haven.

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<summary><mark style="color:red;"><strong>Shrine •-••• (Children of the Blood p.99)</strong></mark></summary>

You keep a shrine in your haven. The number of dots purchased in this Merit are equal to the dice bonus your character received on scrounging for, preparing, or otherwise acquiring Ritual and Ceremony ingredients.

• Tabletop Shrine — The space is no bigger than a desktop or small table, with items that easily fit in a drawer or a box you can stow beneath a loose floorboard: a few candles, a ritual bowl, a small vial of vitae.

•• Moderate Shrine — You’ve devoted a room solely to worship, complete with a small altar and several items relevant to your faith.

••• Large Shrine — You’ve spent considerable time and resources on making the shrine as close to your faith’s temples and basilicas as you can. If you also have the Security System Merit (Vampire: The Masquerade, p. 189), add one additional die to rolls to resist unauthorized entry into the shrine.

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<summary><mark style="color:purple;"><strong>Smugglers Stash •-••</strong></mark> <mark style="color:purple;"><strong>(Live From the Succubus Club p.25)</strong></mark></summary>

**Prerequisite:** [<mark style="color:purple;">Mobile</mark>](#mobile-live-from-the-succubus-club-p.25)

You’ve dedicated a small section of your Haven to security, ensuring that even if accessed and subjected to a thorough search, your cargo — or you — remains safely stashed away. For one dot, this space is equivalent in size to one person, while two dots expands the space to cover your entire coterie. Searches for the compartment are made at +2 Difficulty.

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<summary><mark style="color:purple;"><strong>Spare Plates •• (Live From the Succubus Club pp.25-26)</strong></mark></summary>

**Prerequisite:** [<mark style="color:purple;">Mobile</mark>](#mobile-live-from-the-succubus-club-p.25)

Vehicles are easy to trace, and their size makes them harder to hide. To ensure your home’s reputation never trips you up, you keep a series of spare plates, stickers, and other identifiers that you can switch out with a turn’s worth of activity, giving you sufficient cover to avoid all but the most invasive searches.

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<summary><mark style="color:purple;"><strong>Surgery • (Core p.189)</strong></mark></summary>

**Prerequisite:** Haven 2+

Your haven has one room equipped as a field surgery or better. Add two dice to relevant dice pools, generally Medicine, for tests performed in your haven. This Merit is not available in small havens.

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<summary><mark style="color:red;"><strong>Watchmen • (Core p.189)</strong></mark></summary>

You have either private security or criminal thugs guarding your haven. Each dot of this Merit supplies four Average guards and one Gifted boss (see [<mark style="color:purple;">Allies</mark>](https://wiki.capetownvtm.com/material-availability/advantages-and-flaws#allies)). If guards would be conspicuous here, buy this Merit cautiously.

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<summary><mark style="color:purple;"><strong>Warding • (Core p.189)</strong></mark></summary>

**Prerequisite:** Occult 3+, [<mark style="color:purple;">Blood Sorcery</mark>](https://wiki.capetownvtm.com/material-availability/powers#blood-sorcery)

Your haven possesses some kind of magical ward barring supernatural forces. You may not be able to deactivate it, but it allows you to pass. Discuss the limits of your ward with the Storyteller. Each dot of this Merit adds one to the dice pool to resist supernatural scrying, as well as whatever other entry the Storyteller allows it to prevent. The Storyteller may require you to possess Occult 3 or better, or Blood Sorcery, to buy this Merit.

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## Flaws

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<summary><mark style="color:red;"><strong>Compromised • (Core p.189)</strong></mark></summary>

Your haven has been raided once before, perhaps before it was yours. It probably appears on someone’s watchlist. Invaders or spies can add two dice to their pool to penetrate or surveil your haven. If you ever do get on the Inquisition’s radar, you should think about moving out.

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<summary><mark style="color:red;"><strong>Creepy • (Core p.189)</strong></mark></summary>

Your haven looks like the den of a serial killer, which in fairness is probably exactly what it is. Unknowing neighbors might phone in a tip to the cops or just talk about the creepy place they saw. Your dice pools on Social tests to seduce or otherwise put human guests at ease are at a two-dice penalty.

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<summary><mark style="color:red;"><strong>Haunted • (Core p.189)</strong></mark></summary>

Your haven has a supernatural manifestation in it that you do not control or really even understand. It might just have a ghost, but a Haunted haven could hold a dimensional portal, a cursed meteorite, or anything else you can’t get rid of. Obviously, someone who does understand the manifestation could use it to breach your haven’s security. The Storyteller defines any other effect of the haunting, imposing at least a one-die penalty to affected pools used in the haven per dot of Haunted taken as a Flaw.

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<summary><mark style="color:purple;"><strong>On the Rails • (Live From the Succubus Club p.26)</strong></mark></summary>

**Prerequisite:** [<mark style="color:purple;">Mobile</mark>](#mobile-live-from-the-succubus-club-p.25)

Your haven’s movement is not entirely under your control, such as on a ship or train. You might speed or delay a departure, or make an unscheduled stop, but the destinations are likely fixed. Work with the Storyteller to determine where your haven travels.

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<summary><mark style="color:red;"><strong>Shared •-•• (Players Guide p.113)</strong></mark></summary>

Your haven is not entirely your own. Other Kindred, besides you and your coterie, have access to it and can make decisions about it without consulting you. Decide the specific conditions and determine the severity of this Flaw based on those circumstances.

The one-dot version of this Flaw covers joint havens: e.g., you have one or more Storyteller character housemates, or you and a whole clutch of fledglings squat in an abandoned building. Any problems they bring back to the haven become your problems, too. A coterie that takes a haven together does not automatically invoke this Flaw; sharing with your coterie has only as much downside as you mutually create in play.

The one-dot Shared Flaw also covers short-term havens: you’re staying in an embassy or safe house or campground, with the expectation that you’ll be moving on and another Kindred may arrive to take your place at any time. Getting a new shared haven when that happens costs no more dots, but you may lose dots you put into improving the old one, in addition to moving all your belongings and re-training your Herd where to show up at night.

The two-dot version of this Flaw means you have a local landlord. Another Kindred has rights to the property (either an actual land title or a grant from the local Prince or Baron) and graciously (or not) allows you to roost there. After haven creation, you must discuss any changes you wish to make to your haven with your landlord. The landlord can enter your haven at will. Especially older Kindred landlords may also call on you for service or dirty jobs, treating you like a vassal or apparatchik.

Tremere chantries, Nosferatu warrens, and Ministry temples might be one or two-dot shared havens for characters of the appropriate clan, depending on the power balance between you and the other Kindred there.

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<summary><mark style="color:purple;"><strong>Temperamental •</strong></mark> <mark style="color:purple;"><strong>(Live From the Succubus Club p.26)</strong></mark></summary>

**Prerequisite:** [<mark style="color:purple;">Mobile</mark>](#mobile-live-from-the-succubus-club-p.25)

Whether you love it despite its flaws, can’t afford the repairs, or are ignorant to your haven’s mechanical imperfections, your vehicle is unreliable and waiting for the worst moment to disappoint you. Any failed Drive test sees the vehicle grind to a halt, unable to be restarted without a successful repair test. Should you change your vehicle, this Flaw follows you unless bought off with Experience.

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