Core
Allowed
Merits
Linguistics •-••••• (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.
Looks, Beautiful •• (p.179) You add one extra die to all appropriate Social dice pools.
Looks, Stunning •••• (p.179) You add two extra dice to all appropriate Social dice pools, as above.
Substance Use, High-Functioning Addict • (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.
Bonding, Bond Resistance • (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).
Bonding, Short Bond •• (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.
Bonding, Unbondable ••••• (p.181) You cannot be Blood Bound. If you’re ever short of cash, you can probably sell your vitae to alchemists, too.
Feeding, Bloodhound • (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.
Feeding, Iron Gullet ••• (p.182) You can feed from cold blood, rancid blood, and fractionated plasma. None of these provide Resonances. Ventrue may not take this Merit.
Mythic, Eat Food •• (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
Allies •-•••• (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 •-••• (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 •-••••• (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 •-••••• (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.
Haven •-••• (p.188) 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.
Haven, Hidden Armory • (p.189)
Haven, Cell • (p.189)
Haven, Watchmen • (p.189)
Haven, Laboratory • (p.189)
Haven, Library • (p.189)
Haven, Location • (p.189)
Haven, Luxury • (p.189)
Haven, Postern • (p.189)
Haven, Security System • (p.189)
Haven, Surgery • (p.189)
Haven, Warding • (p.189)
Herd •-••••• (pp.189-190)
Mask •-•• (p.190)
Mask, Cobbler • (p.191)
Mask, Zeroed • (p.191)
Mawla •-••••• (pp.192-193)
Resources •-••••• (p.193)
Retainers •-••• (p.194)
Status •-••••• (p.194)
Flaws
Illiterate •• (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.
Looks, Ugly • (p.179) You lose one die from all relevant Social dice pools.
Looks, Repulsive •• (p.179) You lose two dice from all relevant Social dice pools.
Substance Use, Addiction • (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.
Substance Use, Hopeless Addiction •• (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.
Bonding, Bond Junkie • (p.181) The Bond feels sweeter to you once it happens. Subtract one die from your dice pools to act against a Blood Bond.
Bonding, Long Bond • (p.181) Blood Bonds on you lose their Bond strength more slowly than normal, decreasing by one for each three months without being reinforced.
Bonding, Bondslave •• (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.
Feeding, Methuselah's Thirst • (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).
Feeding, Prey Exclusion • (p.181) You refuse to hunt a certain class of prey: drug users, women, children, policemen, innocents, a given minority or ethnic group, etc. If you feed on such prey, you gain Stains as though you had violated a chronicle Tenet. Witnessing other Kindred feeding on the object of your exclusion without interfering might also give Stains, at the Storyteller’s discretion. Ventrue with this Flaw gain an additional restriction, making their choice of vessels extremely narrow.
Feeding, Farmer •• (p.181) You feed only on animal blood. You must spend two points of Willpower to drink human blood. Ventrue may not take this Flaw.
Feeding, Organovore •• (p.181) You can slake Hunger only by eating human flesh and organs, especially those rich in blood such as the heart, liver, lungs, placenta, and spleen. (Most organovore Kindred these nights make smoothies from the organs first.) Only the heart provides Resonance, if any.
Mythic, Folkloric Bane • (p.183) You take Aggravated damage from a folkloric bane. Your chosen bane must link to a vampiric mythos.
Mythic, Folkloric Block • (p.183) When faced with a folkloric block, you must shrink away from it or spend a Willpower point to push through it. Your chosen block must link to a vampiric mythos. Each folkloric block you take counts as a separate one-point Flaw.
Mythic, Stigmata • (p.183) You begin to bleed from open wounds on your hands, feet, and forehead when you reach Hunger 4. This attracts attention, leaves traces, and may penalize some dice pools at the Storyteller’s discretion.
Allies, Enemies •-•• (pp.184-185)
Fame, Infamy •-••• (pp.186-187)
Fame, Dark Secret •-••• (pp.186-187)
Influence, Disliked • (pp.187-188)
Influence, Despised • (p.187)
Haven, No Haven • (p.188)
Haven, Compromised •• (p.188)
Haven, Creepy • (p.188)
Haven, Haunted • (pp.188-189)
Herd, Obvious Predator •• (pp.189-190)
Mask, Known Corpse • (p.190)
Mask, Known Blankbody •• (p.190)
Mawla, Adversary •-••• (p.193)
Resources, Destitute • (p.193)
Retainers, Stalkers • (p.194)
Status, Suspect • (p.194)
Status, Shunned •• (p.194)
Thin-Blood Merits
Anarch Comrades • (p.183) You have befriended the members of an Anarch coterie who tolerate your presence or even affectionately treat you as their pet. They cumulatively act as a one-dot Anarch Mawla, as long as you don’t deviate from the party line.
Camarilla Contact • (p.183) You have caught the eye of a Camarilla recruiter who has promised you admittance and a chance at becoming a real vampire. All you need to do is keep your eyes and ears open, report on your and your coterie’s activities, and be prepared to perform any task asked of you. You have the equivalent of a one-dot Camarilla Mawla who treats you badly.
Catenating Blood • (p.183) You can create Blood Bonds and perform the Embrace as a regular vampire. Any vampire you create this way will be a thin-blood.
Day Drinker • (pp.183-184) Sunlight halves your Health tracker (rounded up), but otherwise simply removes your vampiric abilities, including all Disciplines and Health benefits, and does no other damage. You still suffer from Hunger, however, and sooner or later you’ll need to sleep. If your health drops below your currently sustained damage levels as a result of this, you suffer the effects of Impairment or torpor (depending on type of damage) until you are clear of sunlight.
Discipline Affinity • (p.184) You have an affinity for a certain Discipline, picked at character creation. You gain a dot in this Discipline and can learn and retain additional dots in it through experience expenditures, as if you were a normal vampire. (The experience point cost is the same as an out-of-clan Discipline.) Drinking blood with matching Resonance does not reward you with any extra dots in this Discipline, temporary or not.
Lifelike • (p.184) You have a heartbeat, can eat food, and enjoy sexual activities like a mortal. All but the most advanced medical inspections reveal nothing out of the ordinary, assuming they happen at night.
Thin-Blood Alchemist • (p.184) The Duskborn change as they feed. Thin-Blood Alchemy is the mastery of this process. Whether it is spontaneous or a skill learned by comparing notes with other blood-cookers, you have gained one dot and one formula (p. 282) in Thin-blood Alchemy. You can purchase additional dots and formulae through experience as usual.
Vampiric Resilience • (p.184) You suffer damage as a regular vampire, treating regular puncture and slashing wounds as Superficial damage.
Thin-Blood Flaws
Baby Teeth • (p.182) You never developed fangs, or the ones you’ve got are useless for feeding. You either need to cut your victims open, or you extract their blood with a syringe.
Bestial Temper • (p.182) You are afflicted with the Beast equal to a full vampire. You need to test for frenzy as per the normal vampire rules.
Branded by the Camarilla • (pp.182-183) In some cities, the rulers simply hunt down and destroy thin-bloods. In other cities, the merciful Sheriff merely brands them, forcibly and painfully, to remind them of their place. (Many are then hunted down and destroyed, often on perceived slights or simple whims.) You have such an unhealing brand, and the Camarilla makes sure to keep its eyes peeled for the moment you step out of line. You can take Camarilla Contact with this Flaw; the Camarilla thrives on double-dealing of this sort.
Clan Curse • (p.183) Remnants of your sire’s Blood still flows through your veins, carrying traces of their ancient curse. You must pick a Clan Bane to suffer from, counting your Bane Severity as 1 for this purpose. You can only pick the Brujah or Gangrel Bane if you possess the Bestial Temper Flaw, and the Tremere Bane only if you have the Catenating Blood Merit.
Dead Flesh • (p.183) Your Blood is not strong enough to completely sustain you, and as an effect, your flesh is in a constant state of putrefaction, with a greenish tint and faint stench of rot. Any medical inspection will immediately identify you as deceased, and you receive a one-die penalty to any face-to-face Social test with a mortal. You cannot take Lifelike if you take this Flaw.
Mortal Frailty • (p.183) You cannot Rouse the Blood to mend, instead healing as a mortal (p. 126). You cannot take Vampiric Resilience if you take this Flaw.
Shunned by the Anarchs • (p.183) You broke an unwritten rule or thought yourself equal among equals, where some turned out more equal than others. In whichever case, the Anarchs of the regnum know of you and shun you. They’d rather throw you to the Camarilla than listen to your pleas. You cannot take Anarch Comrades if you take this Flaw.
Vitae Dependency • (p.183) Your Blood is unable to sustain vampiric powers by itself. Unless you drink enough vampire Blood to slake one Hunger each week you lose your ability to gain and use any Disciplines (including Thin-Blood Alchemy). You regain your powers as soon as you slake at least one Hunger with vampire Blood.
Coterie Backgrounds
Domain, Chasse •-••••• (pp.195-196)
Domain, Lien •-••••• (p.196)
Domain, Portillon •-••••• (p.196)
Powers
Animalism, Bond Famulus • (p.245)
Animalism, Sense the Beast • (p.245)
Animalism, Feral Whispers •• (p.246)
Animalism, Animal Succulence ••• (p.246)
Animalism, Quell the Beast ••• (p.246)
Animalism, Unliving Hive ••• + Obfuscate •• (p.247)
Animalism, Subsume the Spirit •••• (p.247)
Animalism, Animal Dominion ••••• (p.247)
Animalism, Drawing Out the Beast •••••• (p.248)
Auspex, Heightened Senses • (p.249)
Auspex, Sense the Unseen • (p.249)
Auspex, Premonition •• (pp.249-250)
Auspex, Scry the Soul ••• (p.250)
Auspex, Share the Senses ••• (p.250)
Auspex, Spirit's Touch •••• (pp.250-251)
Auspex, Clairvoyance ••••• (p.251)
Auspex, Possession ••••• + Dominate • (pp.251-252)
Auspex, Telepathy ••••• (p.252)
Celerity, Cat's Grace • (pp.252-253)
Celerity, Rapid Reflexes • (p.253)
Celerity, Fleetness •• (p.253)
Celerity, Blink ••• (pp.253-254)
Celerity, Traversal ••• (p.254)
Celerity, Draught of Elegance •••• (p.254)
Celerity, Unerring Aim •••• + Auspex •• (p.254)
Celerity, Lightning Strike ••••• (p.254)
Celerity, Split Second ••••• (pp.254-255)
Dominate, Cloud Memory • (p.256)
Dominate, Compel • (p.256)
Dominate, Mesmerize •• (p.256)
Dominate, Dementation •• + Obfuscate •• (pp.256-257)
Dominate, The Forgetful Mind ••• (p.257)
Dominate, Submerged Directive ••• (p.257)
Dominate, Rationalize •••• (p.257)
Dominate, Mass Manipulation ••••• (p.257)
Dominate, Terminal Decree ••••• (pp.257-258)
Fortitude, Resilience • (p.258)
Fortitude, Unswayable Mind • (p.258)
Fortitude, Toughness •• (pp.258-259)
Fortitude, Enduring Beasts •• + Animalism • (p.259)
Fortitude, Defy Bane ••• (p.259)
Fortitude, Fortify the Inner Facade ••• (p.259)
Fortitude, Draught of Endurance •••• (pp.259-260)
Fortitude, Flesh of Marble ••••• (p.260)
Fortitude, Prowess from Pain ••••• (p.260)
Obfuscate, Cloak of Shadows • (p.261)
Obfuscate, Silence of Death • (p.261)
Obfuscate, Unseen Passage •• (pp.261-262)
Obfuscate, Ghost in the Machine ••• (p.262)
Obfuscate, Mask of a Thousand Faces ••• (p.262)
Obfuscate, Conceal •••• + Auspex ••• (pp.262-263)
Obfuscate, Vanish •••• (p.263)
Obfuscate, Cloak the Gathering ••••• (p.263)
Obfuscate, Imposter's Guise ••••• (p.263)
Potence, Lethal Body • (p.264)
Potence, Soaring Leap • (p.264)
Potence, Prowess •• (p.264)
Potence, Brutal Feed ••• (pp.264-265)
Potence, Spark of Rage ••• + Presence ••• (p.265)
Potence, Uncanny Grip ••• (p.265)
Potence, Draught of Might •••• (p.265)
Potence, Earthshock ••••• (pp.265-266)
Potence, Fist of Caine ••••• (p.266)
Presence, Awe • (p.267)
Presence, Daunt • (p.267)
Presence, Lingering Kiss •• (pp.267-268)
Presence, Dread Gaze ••• (p.268)
Presence, Entrancement ••• (p.268)
Presence, Irresistible Voice •••• + Dominate • (p.268)
Presence, Summon •••• (pp.268-269)
Presence, Majesty ••••• (p.269)
Presence, Star Magnetism ••••• (p.269)
Protean, Eyes of the Beast • (p.270)
Protean, Weight of the Feather • (p.270)
Protean, Feral Weapons •• (pp.270-271)
Protean, Earth Meld ••• (p.271)
Protean, Shapechange ••• (p.271)
Protean, Metamorphosis •••• (p.271)
Protean, Mist Form ••••• (pp.271-272)
Protean, The Unfettered Heart ••••• (p.272)
Blood Sorcery, Corrosive Vitae • (p.273)
Blood Sorcery, A Taste for Blood • (p.273)
Blood Sorcery, Extinguish Vitae •• (p.273)
Blood Sorcery, Blood of Potency ••• (pp.273-274)
Blood Sorcery, Scorpion's Touch ••• (p.274)
Blood Sorcery, Theft of Vitae •••• (p.274)
Blood Sorcery, Baal's Caress ••••• (pp.274-275)
Blood Sorcery, Cauldron of Blood ••••• (p.275)
Rituals
Blood Walk • (p.276)
Clinging of the Insect • (p.276)
Craft Bloodstone • (pp.276-277)
Wake With Evening's Freshness • (p.277)
Ward Against Ghouls • (p.277)
Communicate With Kindred Sire •• (p.277)
Eyes of Babel •• (p.277)
Illuminate the Trail of Prey •• (p.277)
Truth of Blood •• (pp.277-278)
Ward Against Spirits •• (p.278)
Warding Circle Against Ghouls •• (p.278)
Dagon's Call ••• (p.278)
Deflection of Wooden Doom ••• (pp.278-279)
Essence of Air ••• (p.279)
Firewalker ••• (p.279)
Ward Against Lupines ••• (p.279)
Warding Circle Against Spirits ••• (p.279)
Defense of the Sacred Haven •••• (pp.279-280)
Eyes of the Nighthawk •••• (p.280)
Incorporeal Passage •••• (p.280)
Ward Against Cainites •••• (p.280)
Warding Circle Against Lupines •••• (p.280)
Escape to True Sanctuary ••••• (pp.280-281)
Heart of Stone ••••• (p.281)
Shaft of Belated Dissolution ••••• (pp.280-281)
Warding Circle Against Cainites ••••• (p.281)
Formulae
Far Reach • (pp.284-285)
Haze • (p.285)
Envelop •• (p.285)
Defractionate ••• (pp.285-286)
Profane Heiros Gamos ••• (pp.286-287)
Airborne Momentum •••• (p.287)
Awaken the Sleeper ••••• (p.287)
Banned
Flaws
Archaic, Living in the Past • (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 •• (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.
Mythic, Stake Bait •• (p.183) You meet Final Death when staked through the heart, rather than entering torpor.
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