Character Creation (BAD)

• Quick Start
• Quick XP Chart
• Merits
• Physical
• Mental
• Social
• Supernatural
• Clan Specific
• Flaws
• Physical
• Mental
• Social
• Supernatural
• Clan Specific

Quick Start

Overview

Before you begin the character creation process, please familiarize yourself with the House Rules that apply to the Baltimore After Dark chronicle. Note that to play a character above Neonate, you must be pre-approved by Staff; please request a discussion through the #ask-staff channel on the Discord Server.

Step 1 • Character Concept

Start with a basic concept for your character. Think of one or two words to describe this concept and don't be shy about discussing your ideas with staff and other players. 

When you are ready, create your character sheet by selecting the New Character option from your user menu:

You will be redirected to your new character sheet. The first thing you should do is change the title of this character sheet to the name of your character in the format Firstname Lastname :

Make sure to save your character sheet often to avoid losing your work! You can save your sheet using the Save Page link.

Step 2 • Overview & The Basics

The first section of the character sheet is the Overview. In this section you will upload your character's portrait and provide a brief synopsis about your character. This overview does not need to be long but should provide other players with a general idea about who your character is, why they are in Baltimore and any other important information that might be relevant.

Your character's portrait should be 250px wide by 250px tall. The JPG format is preferred. To upload your character's portrait, select the image on the character sheet (1) then click the image icon on the toolbar (2):

This will launch the image manager. From here drag an image into the upload section or simply click on it (1) to launch the file picker. When your image is uploaded, select it from the gallery (2) and then click on select image (3):

The second section - The Basics - contains some general information about your character. Complete each section as follows:

Name	Your characters name (generally Firstname Lastname)
Player	Your Discord nickname used on the RHC Server
Chronicle	Baltimore After Dark
Nature	Your character's 'true' personality.
Demeanor	How your character presents themselves.
Concept	Remember that one or two word concept you thought of earlier? Put that here!
Clan	Your character's clan.
Generation	Starts at 13th. Can be lowered through the Generation background, or raised through Flaws.
Sire	The name of your character's sire (if known).

When entering text into longer text areas, use CTRL-ENTER to enter a new line.

Step 3 • Attributes

Attributes are divided into three (3) categories: Physical, Social and Mental. During this step, prioritize your attribute categories as Primary, Secondary and Tertiary; record this choice by marking each category on your sheet with a P, S, or T. Your character begins with one (1) dot in each attribute.

Assign dots to each of your attribute categories according to the following chart:

Kindred Tier	Primary	Secondary	Tertiary	Notes
Fledgeling	7 dots	5 dots	3 dots
Neonate	7 dots	5 dots	3 dots
Ancilla	8 dots	6 dots	4 dots
Elder	9 dots	7 dots	5 dots

You can modify the dots on your sheets by using '1' for a filled in dot and '0' for an empty dot.
For example to set an attribute to 3 or 11100 you would enter '11100'.

No Attribute may exceed 5.

Step 4 • Abilities

Abilities are divided into three (3) categories: Talents, Skills and Knowledge. During this step, prioritize your attribute categories as Primary, Secondary and Tertiary; record this choice by marking each category on your sheet with a P, S, or T. Your character begins with zero (0) dots in each attribute.

Assign dots to each of your ability categories according to the following chart:

Kindred Tier	Primary	Secondary	Tertiary	Notes
Fledgeling	13 dots	9 dots	5 dots
Neonate	13 dots	9 dots	5 dots
Ancilla	14 dots	10 dots	6 dots
Elder	15 dots	11 dots	7 dots

You can modify the dots on your sheets by using '1' for a filled in dot and '0' for an empty dot.
For example to set an attribute to 3 or 11100 you would enter '11100'.

No single Ability may go above three dots at this time. During the Freebies and Experience phase, abilities may be raised up to the Generation maximum.

Step 5 • Advantages

Clan Disciplines

Record and assign dots to Clan Disciplines according to the chart below. Clan Disciplines should me marks with an * on your sheet. You can assign these dots in any combination (1 dot in three Clan Disciplines, 3 dots in one Clan Discipline, etc.).

Kindred Tier	Dots	Notes
Fledgling	3
Neonate	3
Ancilla	4
Elder	5

Backgrounds

Record and assign dots to backgrounds according to the following chart:

Kindred Tier	Dots	Notes
Fledgling	6
Neonate	6
Ancilla	7
Elder	8

You must purchase the Generation background for any character less than 13th generation.

For Backgrounds that require additional information (e.g. Allies, Contacts, etc.) please be sure to fill out the Expanded Background section.

Virtues

For characters on the Path of Humanity:

The Path of Humanity has three Virtues: Conscience, Self-Control, and Courage. Edit your sheet to reflect this (e.g. delete Instinct and Conviction). The three Virtues begin with one free dot each. Assign 7 dots among these Virtues ensuring that no Virtue exceeds 5 dots.

For characters on a Path other than Humanity:

Your chosen Path may use Conviction instead of Conscience or Instinct instead of Self-Control. Edit your sheet to reflect the names of your Path's Virtues (e.g. if it using Instinct, delete Self-Control). Conscience, Self-Control, and Courage begin with one free dot each, but Conviction and Instinct start at zero dots. Assign 7 dots among your Path's three Virtues ensuring that no Virtue exceeds 5 dots.

Humanity/Path

If your character is on a Path other than Humanity, record the Path name in the Path field along with the Path's Bearing. 

Record your Humanity or Path score which is equal to Conscience/Conviction + Self-Control/Instinct. 

You can modify the dots on your sheets by using '1' for a filled in dot and '0' for an empty dot.
For example to set your Humanity to 6 or 11111 10000 you would enter '11111 10000'.

Willpower

Record your permanent Willpower (circular dots) which is equal to Courage.

You can modify the dots on your sheets by using '1' for a filled in dot and '0' for an empty dot.
For example to set your permanent Willpower to 6 or 11111 10000 you would enter '11111 10000'.

Blood Pool

Record your starting Blood Pool and Blood Per Turn according to the Generational maximums:

Generation	Maximum Blood Pool	Blood Per Turn	Notes
7th	20	4
8th	15	3
9th	14	2
10th	13	1
11th	12	1
12th	11	1
13th	10	1
14th	10	1	See the Flaw: Fourteenth Generation
15th	10	1	See the Flaw: Fifteenth Generation

Step 6 • Merits & Flaws

You may optionally select Merits and/or Flaws for your character.

You may purchase Merits using Freebie Points (Step 7).

Flaws may be taken to receive Bonus Freebie Points, but you cannot receive more than 7 Freebie Points from Flaws.

Step 7 • Freebie Points

You may now spend 15 Freebie Points (less any Merits taken) plus any Bonus Freebie Points received by taking Flaws up to a maximum of 22 Freebie Points. Make note of how you spend your Freebie Points in the Experience section of the character sheet.

Be sure to adjust any traits affected by your Freebie purchases.

Freebie points can be spent according to the following chart: 

Category	Cost	Notes
Ability	2 per dot
Attribute	5 per dot
Background	1 per dot
Discipline	7 per dot
Humanity	2 per dot
Specialty	1 dot	Maximum 3 per Attribute or Ability
Virtue	2 per dot
Willpower	1 per dot

Any points not spent at this time are lost.

Step 8 • Specialties

For each Attribute or Ability above 3, you may select a Specialty for it. Record this specialty next to the Attribute or Ability:

Step 9 • Experience Points

You may now spend Starting Experience Points. Record your total Starting Experience Points on your character sheet according to your Kindred Tier:

Kindred Tier	Age - Torpor Period	XP	Notes
Fledgling / Neonate	1-50	15
	50-100	35
Ancilla	101-150	75
	151-200	110
	201-250	160
	251-299	-	To be determined in discussion with staff.
Elder	300+	-	To be determined in discussion with staff.

Make note of how you spend your Experience Points in the Experience section of the character sheet.

Experience Points can be spent according to the following chart:

Category	Cost	Notes
New Ability	3
New Background	3
New Discipline	10
New Path	7	Necromancy or Thaumaturgy
New Specialty	3	1 Free Specialty with an Attribute or Ability at 4+; Maximum 3 per Attribute or Ability
Attribute	Current Rating × 4
Ability	Current Rating × 2
Background	Current Rating × 2
Clan Discipline	Current Rating × 5	Caitiff have no Clan Disciplines. The cost for a Caitiff to raise all Disciplines is the Current Rating × 6.
Other Discipline	Current Rating × 7
Secondary Path	Current Rating × 4	Necromancy or Thaumaturgy
Virtue	Current Rating × 2	Increasing a Virtue through experience does not increase traits based on that Virtue (Humanity, Path, Willpower)
Willpower	Current Rating

Any Experience Points spent at this time are remain available for your character to spend later in play.

Step 10 • Rounding Out

Fill out the Rights & Possessions section, detailing any gear, equipment or vehicles of note, along with information about your character's feeding grounds and haven(s) if applicable.

Provide a description of your character by completing the provided traits along with a few words on how they look and usually dress in the text box.

Provide your character's backstory in the history section. This does not have to be exhaustive! A succinct description of key events is all that is required - can even be in bullet form. 

Tags

If applicable, you should tag your character sheet using the tag feature. Te following tags should be set:

• Sect • Camarilla, Sabbat or Independent)
• Clan • Your character's clan
• Player • Your Discord nickname used on the RHC Server
• Face Claim • If you use a real life face claim, tag them by name using the format Firstname Lastname

Step 11 • Submission

When you are happy with your character sheet you can submit it for review by Staff. To do so, please post in the #character-submission channel on the Discord Server including a link to your character sheet. Staff will endeavor to review your sheet within 24 hours. If the review process might take longer, or there are potential issues with your sheet, Staff will contact you via Discord.

Quick XP Chart

Experience Points can be spent according to the following chart:

Category	Cost	Notes
New Ability	3
New Background	3
New Discipline	10
New Path	7	Necromancy or Thaumaturgy
New Specialty	3	1 Free Specialty with an Attribute or Ability at 4+; Maximum 3 per Attribute or Ability
Attribute	Current Rating × 4
Ability	Current Rating × 2
Background	Current Rating × 2
Clan Discipline	Current Rating × 5	Caitiff have no Clan Disciplines. The cost for a Caitiff to raise all Disciplines is the Current Rating × 6.
Other Discipline	Current Rating × 7
Secondary Path	Current Rating × 4	Necromancy or Thaumaturgy
Virtue	Current Rating × 2	Increasing a Virtue through experience does not increase traits based on that Virtue (Humanity, Path, Willpower)
Willpower	Current Rating

Merits

Physical

Acute Sense

Cost: 1pt.
One of your senses is exceptionally sharp, be it sight, hearing, smell, touch, or taste. The difficulties for all tasks involving the use of this particular sense are reduced by two. This Merit can be combined with the Discipline of Auspex to produce superhuman sensory acuity.

Ambidextrous

Cost: 1pt.
You have a high degree of off-hand dexterity and can perform tasks with the “wrong” hand at no penalty. The rules for taking multiple actions still apply, but you do not suffer a difficulty penalty if you use two weapons or are forced to use your off hand.

Bruiser

Cost: 1pt.
Your appearance is sufficiently thug-like to inspire fear (or at least disquiet) in those who see you. While you’re not necessarily ugly, you do radiate a quiet menace, to the point where people cross the street to avoid passing near you. All Intimidation rolls against those who have not demonstrated their physical superiority to you are at -1 difficulty.

Catlike Balance

Cost: 1pt.
You possess an innately perfect sense of balance. Characters with this Merit reduce difficulties of all balance- related rolls (e.g., Dexterity + Athletics to walk along a narrow ledge) by two.

Early Riser

Cost: 1pt.
No one can explain it, but you seem to have the ability to work on less rest than your fellow vampires. You always seem to be the first to rise and the last to go to bed even if you’re been out until dawn. Your Humanity or Path score is considered to be 10 for purposes of deciding when you rise each evening. Vampires with this Merit cannot take the Deep Sleeper Flaw.

Eat Food

Cost: 1pt.
You have the capacity to eat food and even savor its taste. While you cannot derive any nourishment from eating regular foods, this ability will serve you well in pretending to be human. Of course, you can’t digest what you eat, and there will be some point during the evening when you have to heave it back up.

Friendly Face

Cost: 1pt.
You have a face that reminds everyone of someone, to the point where strangers are inclined to be well-inclined toward you because of it. The effect doesn’t fade even if you explain the “mistake,” leaving you at -1 difficulty on all appropriate Social-based rolls (yes for Seduction, no for Intimidation, for example) when a stranger is involved. This Merit only functions on a first meeting.

Blush of Health

Cost: 2pt.
You look more hale and healthy in appearance than other vampires, allowing you to blend with human society much more easily. You still retain the color of a living mortal, and your skin feels only slightly cool to the touch.

Enchanting Voice

Cost: 2pt.
There is something about your voice that others cannot ignore. When you command, they are cowed. When you seduce, they swoon. Whether thundering, soothing, persuading, or simply talking, your voice commands attention. The difficulties of all rolls involving the use of the voice to persuade, charm, or command are reduced by two.

Crackshot

Cost: 3pt.
You’ve trained extensively with firearms, to the point where the gun feels like an extension of your own hand. Spend a point of Willpower to make impressive trick shots. You still need to roll your Dexterity + Firearms if attacking someone. You can make bullets ricochet off a spittoon before hitting your target, shoot the lock off a door, or the cigarette out of someone’s mouth.

Daredevil

Cost: 3pt.
You are good at taking risks, and even better at surviving them. When attempting exceptionally risky non-combat actions (such as leaping from one moving car to another), characters with this Merit add an additional three dice to their rolls, and negate a single botch die that may result from such a roll. Generally, such actions must be at least difficulty 8 and have the potential to inflict at least three health levels of damage if failed.

Efficient Digestion

Cost: 3pt.
You are able to draw more than the usual amount of nourishment from blood. When feeding, you gain an additional point to your blood pool for every two points of blood you consume. This does not allow you to exceed your blood pool maximum.

Discerning Palate

Cost: 4pt.
Your naturally selective palate allows you to discern specific traits inherent to a sample of blood. With but a taste, you can determine potency, freshness, species, or whether a blood sample is contaminated, as well as attempt to identify the Generation, age, and even Clan of other vampires. If you sample even a single drop of blood, roll Perception + Awareness (difficulty 8).

• One success allows you to identify the relative potency and freshness of the blood, a species whose blood you have previously tasted and know to be of a specific kind, the Generation of another vampire within two steps of your own, if the blood is either under one hundred or over one hundred years old, and if it is of your same Clan.
• Two successes identifies whether the blood is contaminated by disease or poison, the Generations of vampires within four steps of your own, the approximate age within fifty years (if less than three hundred years old), and any Clan whose blood you’ve previously tasted.
• With three or more successes, you identify specific contaminates you’ve sampled before, Generations within six steps of your own, the vintage of blood within twenty-five years (if less than six hundred years old), and any Clan as well as family of vampires whose blood you’ve tasted previously.

Huge Size

Cost: 4pt.
You are abnormally large in size, at least 6’10” and 300 pounds in weight (well over two meters tall and over 130 kgs). Aside from making you extremely noticeable in public, this extra mass bestows an additional Bruised health level. Characters with this Merit may also gain bonuses to push objects, open barred doors, avoid being knocked down, etc.

Mental

Celestial Attunement

Cost: 1pt.
You innately know what time of day it is and are able to accurately guess the hour of sunrise and sunset within a few minutes. With a moment’s concentration, you may also estimate the position of the stars, even without the aid of a star chart.

Coldly Logical

Cost: 1pt.
While some might refer to you as a “cold fish,” you have a knack for separating factual reporting from emotional or hysterical coloration. You may or may not be emotional yourself, but you can see clearly when others are clouding the facts with their feelings (-1 difficulty on all related rolls).

Common Sense

Cost: 1pt.
You have a significant amount of practical, everyday wisdom. Whenever you are about to act in a way contrary to common sense, the Storyteller can make suggestions or warnings about the implications of said action. This is a very useful Merit for beginning players unfamiliar with the game.

Concentration

Cost: 1pt.
You have the ability to focus your mind and shut out any distractions or annoyances. Characters with this Merit are unaffected by any penalties stemming from distracting circumstances (e.g., loud noises, strobe lights, or hanging upside down).

Introspection

Cost: 1pt.
You have keen insight into the ulterior motives of all your actions. Through this nightly exercise, you also have incredible insight into the underlying motives of others’ actions. Add two dice to your Perception dice pool when you must take an action against someone with the same Nature or Demeanor as you.

Kashaph

Cost: 1pt.
The term kashaph is of ambiguous meaning, based on a Hebrew root word for “mutter,” and implying spoken sorcery and incantations. The term is used in the Old Testament to condemn the practitioners of witchcraft. True kashaph has long been extinct — save among the Inconnu. Kashaph is an enchanted language, and cannot be “decoded” by modern linguistics or cryptography. The Inconnu use kashaph to communicate secretly, and also as a method of identifying one another.

New members of the Inconnu are not taught kashaph by normal means. It cannot be studied, nor learned like a conventional language. Instead, members are indoctrinated into the society through an elaborate ritual during which the language of kashaph is inscribed upon their soul. Once “learned” in this way, the language may be spoken, not written (there is no written form, and the sounds cannot be accurately captured by phonetic scribblings), and only another individual with this merit has the capacity to understand the words said in the language of kashaph.

Language

Cost: 1pt.
You know a language in addition to your native one. You can take this Merit multiple times, each reflecting a different language.

House Rule: Reasonably explainable language merits can be taken without a cost (cost 0). If your character would reasonably know a second or third language (e.g. a character from Quebec, Canada would likely know both French and English), then you can mark this as a merit with no cost. Other languages (e.g. ancient languages, something not learned as a child, etc) these would still cost 1pt.

Time Sense

Cost: 1pt.
You have an innate sense of time and are able to estimate the passage of time accurately without using a watch or other mechanical device.

Useful Knowledge

Cost: 1pt.
You have expertise in a specific field that makes your conversation intriguing to an older Kindred. So long as your knowledge holds the other vampire’s attention, he has a vested interest in keeping you around. Then again, once he’s pumped you for every iota of information you possess, that patronage may suddenly vanish.

Note: This Merit should be played like a 1-dot Mentor with a specific interest. However, unlike a Mentor, Useful Knowledge does not imply a permanent relationship.

Code of Honor

Cost: 2pt.
You have a personal code of ethics to which you adhere. The specifics of this code must be worked out with the Storyteller prior to play, and the character must follow it strictly. Characters with this Merit gain two additional dice to all Willpower or Virtue rolls when acting in accordance with their code (e.g., defending the helpless) or when attempting to avoid situations that might force them to violate their code.

Computer Aptitude

Cost: 2pt.
You are familiar with and talented in the uses of computer equipment. Other Kindred may not understand computers, but to you they are intuitive. All rolls involving computers are at -2 difficulty for you.

Eidetic Memory

Cost: 2pt.
You remember, with perfect detail, things you see and hear. Documents, photographs, conversations, etc., can be committed to memory with only minor concentration. Under stressful conditions involving numerous distractions, you must make a Perception + Alertness roll (difficulty 6) to summon enough concentration to absorb what your senses detect.

Incantation

Cost: 2pt.
Your character learns a single Incantation. This Merit may be purchased during play several times, each for a new Incantation. This costs six experience points.

Light Sleeper

Cost: 2pt.
You can awaken instantly at any sign of trouble or danger, and do so without any sleepiness or hesitation. You may ignore rules regarding how Humanity or your morality Path restricts the number of dice available during the day.

Natural Linguist

Cost: 2pt.
You have a flair for languages. You may add three dice to any dice pool involving written or spoken languages, and each purchase of the Language Merit (previous page) gives you two languages instead of just one.

Berserker

Cost: 3pt.
You possess the ability to willingly enter a berserker state for a scene. While berserking, you ignore wound penalties and reduce the difficulty of all combat rolls except for dodges by -3. You also can take no complex actions other than combat, dodging, or running.

Calm Heart

Cost: 3pt.
You are naturally calm and do not easily fly off the handle. You receive two extra dice when attempting to resist a frenzy. Brujah may not take this Merit.

Iron Will

Cost: 3pt.
When you are determined and your mind is set, nothing can thwart you from your goals. Characters using Dementation, Dominate, or any other mind-altering magic, spell, or Thaumaturgy path against your character are at +3 difficulty.

Elder levels of powers like Dementation and Dominate may overwhelm even this resistance. Against Level Six powers, the expenditure of a Willpower point through Iron Will only raises the difficulty of the Discipline roll by two. Against Level Seven powers, the difficulty is increased by only one. Level Eight and higher powers cannot be resisted with Iron Will.

This Merit does not affect Presence or other powers dealing with the emotions. Characters will Willpower scores below 8 cannot take this Merit.

Precocious

Cost: 3pt.
You learn quickly. The time for you to pick up a particular Ability (or Abilities, at Storyteller discretion) is cut in half, as is the experience cost.

Grand Library

Cost: 2, 4, 6, or 7 pt.
Throughout the years, you’ve managed to amass an exquisite collection of books, both common and rare. Choose 3 Knowledge dots for every 2 points taken in this Merit, or 10 Knowledge dots for 7 points. While working in your library, the difficulty rating for any rolls involving those Knowledges is reduced by 2.

Social

Elysium Regular

Cost: 1pt.
You spend an unusual amount of time in Elysium. You see and are seen to such an extent that all of the movers and shakers of Elysium at least know who you are. Extended time spent in Elysium also gives you extended opportunities to interact with the Harpies and other Kindred of that stature — and they’ll know your name when you approach them. This Merit is generally taken by vampires that respect and attend Elysium on a regular basis.

Former Ghoul

Cost: 1pt.
You were introduced to the Blood long before you were made Kindred. Your long experience as a ghoul gives you insight into and comfort with vampiric society. You are at -1 difficulty on all Social rolls when in the presence of other neonates (particularly those who haven’t been educated by their sires), and have a -1 difficulty on all rolls relating to vampiric knowledge.

Harmless

Cost: 1pt.
Everyone in the city knows you, and knows that you’re no threat to their plans. While that sort of estimation may seem insulting, it’s also what’s kept you from being killed. No one considers you worth their time to deal with, and that low opinion keeps you safe. If you start acting in a way that demonstrates that you are no longer harmless, others’ reactions to you will likely change as a result.

Natural Leader

Cost: 1pt.
You are gifted with a certain magnetism to which others naturally defer. You receive two extra dice when making Leadership rolls. You must have a Charisma rating of 3 or greater to purchase this Merit.

Prestigious Sire

Cost: 1pt.
Your sire has or had great status in her Sect or Clan, and this has accorded you a certain amount of prestige. Though your sire may no longer have any dealings with you, the simple fact of your ancestry has marked you forever. This prestige might aid you greatly in dealings with other vampires, or it might engender jealousy or contempt.

Protégé

Cost: 1pt.
Your sire watched you for some time before Embracing you, and spoke glowingly of you to acquaintances. These vampires may be inclined to look favorably on you by dint of your sire’s recommendation; you are at -1 difficulty on Social rolls with all those who’ve heard good things about you.

Rep

Cost: 1pt.
Your fame has exceeded the bounds of your Sect. Everyone knows who you are, what you’ve done and what you’re supposed to have done (which might not be the same thing). The publicity can be good or bad; what matters is that everybody knows your name. Whether individuals outside of your immediate social circle know enough to match your face to your name is a different matter.

Sabbat Survivor

Cost: 1pt.
You’ve lived through at least one Sabbat attack or attempted recruitment. Your experience helps you anticipate situations where you might potentially be endangered by the Sabbat once again. You are at -1 difficulty on all Perception rolls when it comes to Sabbat-based matters. This Merit is generally taken by groups in conflict with the Sabbat, and comes into play most frequently as a means of avoiding ambushes.

Boon

Cost: 1-6pt.
Someone owes you a favor. The vampire in your debt might be the lowliest neonate in the city or might be the Prince herself; it all depends on how many points the Merit costs. You only have that single favor owed you (unless you take the Merit multiple times), so using it properly is of paramount importance. Depending on status and other factors, the vampire who owes you a favor may well resent his debt, and might go out of his way to “settle” it early — even going so far as to create situations from which he must “rescue” you and thus clear the slate.

Bullyboy

Cost: 2pt.
You’re part of the brute squad the local Sheriff or Bishop calls on when he needs some muscle. As a result, you get in on action that others miss entirely, score points with those in power, and occasionally get a chance to act outside of the law. How far outside the law you can go depends on circumstance and how much the vampire you report to likes you.

Entrepreneur

Cost: 2pt. Merit
Making money comes naturally to you, and you know what it takes to succeed. All rolls involving acquiring money through business dealings have their difficulty reduced by 2.

Peacemaker

Cost: 2pt.
You have a reputation for having a good head on your shoulders and the honor to keep your word no matter what. As a result, your allies and sectmates ask you to mediate their disputes, even with other sects. This Merit allows your character to use her reputation as leverage to keep the peace during tense situations. Reduce the difficulty of all social rolls to keep the peace or to mediate honestly between factions (even other sects) by 2.

Prized Patch

Cost: 2pt. You belong to an Anarch gang with a violent, effective, or otherwise impressive reputation. The history of the gang might extend a hundred years before you were born, but so long as you hold membership and wear the colors of your crew, other Anarchs naturally tend to respect you. Some may even occasionally perform minor tasks for you to try to curry favor with the others. When your membership is known, reduce the difficulty of all Manipulation rolls with other Anarchs by 2 unless a given Anarch has a historical animosity with your gang.

Old Pal

Cost: 2pt.
An acquaintance from your breathing days was Embraced at the same time you were. Fortunately, your friendship has endured even death and unlife, and you find a constant source of support and aid in your old friend. She expects the same of you, which isn’t always convenient, but at least you each have someone to hang onto who remembers the good old nights — and days. The Storyteller should play the Old Pal as a very loyal Ally.

Lawman’s Friend

Cost: 2pt.
For whatever reason (maybe your winning smile or perhaps just your superb groveling technique), the local Sheriff or Bishop in charge of discipline likes you. He’s inclined to overlook your minor trespasses and let you in on things you’re not supposed to know about. He even gives you warnings about occasional crackdowns and times when the higher-ups aren’t feeling generous. Of course, abusing this connection might well turn a friendly vampire into an enemy — and the change might not be apparent until it’s too late.

Open Road

Cost: 2pt.
Unlike many Kindred, you like to travel. You have a solid knowledge of safe travel routes and methodologies, not to mention haven space available in any number of destinations. Unless someone out there knows your exact route and is specifically looking for you, you can move between cities unimpeded by random encounters with Lupines, overzealous state troopers, and the like.

Sanctity

Cost: 2pt.
This Merit is sometimes called the halo effect; everyone considers you pure and innocent, though not necessarily naïve. You have a saint-like quality that is hard to pinpoint but cannot be denied. You are trusted, even if you are not trustworthy. At the Storyteller’s discretion, you tend to receive lesser punishments for wrongdoing, and you are liked by most.

Scholar of Enemies

Cost: 2pt.
You have taken the time to learn about and specialize in one particular enemy of your Sect. You are aware of at least some of the group’s customs, strategies, abilities, and long-term goals, and can put that knowledge to good use. This Merit is worth a -2 difficulty for all non-combat rolls pertaining specifically to the subject of your specialization. On the other hand, you are at a +1 difficulty when it comes to dealing with other enemies, simply because you’re so thoroughly focused on your field.

Scholar of Others

Cost: 2pt.
This Merit functions identically to Scholar of Enemies, except that it applies to a group that is not necessarily inimical to your Sect.

Friend of the Underground

Cost: 3pt.
While you’re not a Nosferatu, you know your way around the sewers, tunnels, ducts, subway tubes, and other subterranean passages of your hometown. The local Nosferatu (and any other creatures dwelling down in the muck) may not actually like you, but they’re not inclined to kill you on sight when they see you in their territory. You are at -1 difficulty on any rolls involving the subterranean world (sneaking from place to place underground, finding routes into sub-basements, and so on). Nosferatu cannot purchase this Merit.

Mole

Cost: 3pt.
You have an informer buried in one of your Sect’s enemy organizations who funnels you all sorts of information as to what her peers are up to. What you do with the information is up to you, but abusing the knowledge might be a good way to get your informer killed. The other side has spies too….

Rising Star

Cost: 3pt.
You’re one of the up-and-comers in the city, a rising star in your Sect. Everyone wants to know you and be your friend, even as those in power groom you for positions of greater responsibility. You are at -1 difficulty on all Social rolls against any vampires in your Sect who aren’t actively opposing your ascent.

Soapbox

Cost: 3pt.
You have some sort of special forum (a zine, a secure blog, a well-known podcast, or a social media account with a lot of followers) that allows your Anarch to express an opinion and have said opinion spread widely. The Soapbox Merit represents a social delivery mechanism that can influence Kindred outside of your character’s normal social circle or class. Reduce the difficulty of Expression and Subterfuge rolls by 2 difficulty when dealing with vampires who read the Soapbox.

Sugar Daddy

Cost: 3pt.
You have a personal relationship with a high-ranking member of a different sect. You may invoke your Sugar Daddy’s name to lower the difficulty of Manipulation rolls by 2 against members of that sect when attempting to smooth out problems or acquire minor favors. Of course, the Sugar Daddy may expect similar treatment in kind, and is unlikely to look favorably on any behavior that impugns whatever status he may have.

Broken Bond

Cost: 4pt.
You were once blood-bound but have secretly slipped the leash, and you are free to act as you will once more. Your regnant has no idea that you are not in fact bound, and continues to treat you as if you were. At Storyteller discretion, the experience of having been bound once may render you immune to ever being enthralled again.

Sabbat vampires cannot take this Merit.

Clan Friendship

Cost: 4pt.
One particular Clan (not your own) has a special liking for you. You might have done the Clan as a whole a favor at some point, or perhaps you’re just a loud voice in support of their aims. Whatever the case, you’re at -2 difficulty on all friendly Social rolls involving members of the Clan in question. Of course, the reaction your cozy relationship with another Clan is likely to draw from your own Clan leaders is an entirely different can of worms.

Primogen/Bishop Friendship

Cost: 4pt.
The ruling vampires of the city value you and your opinions. You are called in to consult on decisions, and your recommendations carry great weight. Your position may not be an official one, but it’s powerful nonetheless.

Trophy Allegiance

Cost: 4pt.
Similar to the Clan Friendship Merit Trophy Allegiance opens doors and allows the character to be treated favorably by a specific Clan. The character has earned the Trophy from the Clan in question for taking down one of the Anathema. Word has spread throughout that Clan, that members should offer assistance and rewards to the character for their deed.

While the Trophy itself has likely already been covered with specific rewards, this Social Merit reflects more of a general goodwill and offers the character -2 difficulty on all friendly Social rolls involving members of the Trophy Clan who are familiar with the Alastor’s deeds. Additionally, the character’s reputation may earn her the occasional small favor such as the use of a haven, a loaner car, access to information from Trophy Clan members.

Note: This Merit is only available to Alastor characters who have killed an Anathema and earned a Trophy.

Arcane

Cost: 1 to 5 pt.
Some vampires have a strange ability to slip from notice, which manifests as an aura of forgetfulness. Those trying to remember the vampire experience a sensation of jamais-vu. The ability may be deliberately developed, or the Kindred could simply be too ordinary to pay attention to. Though not similar to Obfuscate, Arcane doesn’t help in combat situations — the vampire can’t literally vanish. However, someone searching for them may well fail, as no one remembers the vampire or can give a reliable description.

Each point taken subtracts one die from any dice pools used to actively locate the vampire or recall her from memory. Those with this Merit can choose to “turn off” Arcane if they wish. As a passive trait, it doesn’t help on Stealth rolls or other overt attempts to hide. If you have any dots in Status or Fame, Arcane ceases to function while you possess them.

Paragon

Cost: 7pt.
Others find you particularly compelling. Select one Background from the following group: Allies, Contacts, Domain, Fame, Herd, Influence, Mentor, Resources, Retainers, or Status. You receive one free dot in that Background, and your maximum Trait score in that Background may exceed normal Generational limits by one.

Supernatural

Deceptive Aura

Cost: 1pt.
Your aura is unnaturally bright and colorful for a vampire. You register as a mortal on all attempts to read your aura.

Healing Touch

Cost: 1pt.
Normally vampires can only seal the wounds they inflict from feeding by licking them. With but a touch, you can achieve the same effect, closing the puncture wounds left by drinking blood.

Inoffensive to Animals

Cost: 1pt.
With rare exceptions, animals usually despise the Kindred. Some flee, others attack, but all dislike being in the presence of a vampire. You have no such problem. Animals may not enjoy being in your company, but they don’t actively flee from you.

Apostate

Cost: 2pt.
Since their inception, Nergali Baali have subverted members of other Clans into their own ranks. Known as Apostates, initiates are first drained completely by a Baali nest-master, who then extracts the still-beating heart from a mortal victim, fills it with his own blood, and buries it in a pool of gore within a Well of Sacrifice. The initiate swims through the dismembered bodies and viscous remains to find and consume the heart. In this way, Nergali do not make a victim of those they Embrace; prospective members must claim it through strength of will. Apostates replace any one in-Clan Discipline with Daimoinon, but in turn gain the Baali Clan weakness on top of their standard Clan weakness. Apostates can still pass with relative ease for members of their former Clans, but any childe they Embrace is indistinguishable from a standard Baali. Further, such a childe shares none of the Clan Disciplines or weaknesses of their sire’s former Clan, save those Disciplines that are innate to the Baali. Apostates do not lose levels in the Discipline they choose to exchange for Daimoinon, but further levels in that Discipline are purchased at out-of-Clan costs. Baali may not take this Merit.

Medium

Cost: 2pt.
You possess the natural affinity to sense and hear spirits, ghosts, and shades. Though you cannot see them, you can sense them, speak to them and, through pleading or cajoling, draw them to your presence. You may call upon them for aid or advice, but there will always be a price. Also, your difficulty is reduced by two for all Awareness rolls involving the spirits of the dead.

Magic Resistance

Cost: 2pt.
You have an inherent resistance to the rituals of the Tremere and the spells of the mages of other Clans. The difficulty of all such magic, both malicious and beneficent, is two higher when directed at you. You may never learn magical Disciplines such as Thaumaturgy and Necromancy.

Without a Trace

Cost: 2pt.
When in the wilderness, the earth fills in your footprints. You leave no noticeable traces, not even a scent. Normal attempts at tracking automatically fail. Supernatural attempts are done with a +2 difficulty.

Hidden Diablerie

Cost: 3pt.
The tell-tale black streaks of diablerie do not manifest in your aura.

Lucky

Cost: 3pt.
You were born lucky — or else the Devil looks after his own. Either way, you may repeat any three failed rolls per story, including botches, but you may try only once per failed roll.

Oracular Ability

Cost: 3pt.
You can see and interpret signs and omens. You are able to draw advice from these omens, for they provide hints of the future and warnings of the present. When the Storyteller feels that you are in position to see an omen, you will be required to make a Perception + Awareness roll, with the difficulty relative to how well the omen is concealed. If successful, you may then roll Intelligence + Occult to interpret what you have seen; the difficulty is again relative to the complexity of the omen.

Spirit Mentor

Cost: 3pt.
You have a ghostly companion and guide. The identity and exact powers of this spirit are up to the Storyteller, but it can be called upon in difficult situations for help and guidance.

Mark of Caine

Cost: 4pt.
Over the course of history, some of the ritae have been lost, either due to the death of Sabbat members, or because the ritus simply was not as integral to the Sabbat’s survival in the modern world. One of these lost ritae was the Mark of the Father, which offered protection against weapons of faith. As faith has declined in the modern world, the ritus was used less and less, until eventually, priests who know the ritae have become all but extinct. Some vampires who participated in the lost Mark of Caine ritus were especially blessed, and still bear a faint sign of favor.

Such vampires are always old, pre-dating the first Sabbat Civil War, and once had this ritual cast upon them by a powerful practitioner. These vampires have a small, faded mark upon their forehead that resembles the Hebraic letter tav.

System: Those who bear the Mark of Caine gain a twisted form of True Faith. They can use the effects of the first dot of True Faith – they must use symbols of Caine as “holy symbols.” Further, they get +2 dice to resist mortal True Faith. Only vampires on spiritual Paths of Enlightenment can use this Merit – if a Cainite reverts to Humanity or succumbs to wassail, all benefit from this Merit is lost forever.

Profane Trappings

Cost: 4pt.
You befoul everything you touch. Whether through intent or unfortunate happenstance, your Domain, Retainers, Herd, and trappings are all tainted with the unholy. While this pollutes your surroundings with a constant aura of nausea and unease, it does make any infernal acts easier to perform in their presence. By taking this Merit, any Disciplines you use are considered infernal; at the Storyteller’s discretion, using your Disciplines on land you hold, on servants in your employ, or with objects you possess, reduces the difficulty of the roll by –2.

True Love

Cost: 4pt.
You have discovered, perhaps too late, a true love. He or she is mortal, but is the center of your existence, and inspires you to keep going in a world of darkness and despair. Whenever you suffer, the thought of your true love gives you the strength to persevere. This Merit grants you one automatic success on all Willpower rolls, which can be negated only by a botch die. This can be a great gift but also a hindrance, for your true love may require protection and occasionally rescue.

Additional Discipline

Cost: 5pt.
You can take one additional Discipline (Storyteller discretion) as if it were a Clan Discipline. All costs to learn that Discipline are paid out as if it were native to your Clan. A character cannot take this Merit more than once, and Caitiff vampires cannot take this Merit.

Demonic Patron

Cost: 5pt.
Your actions drew the attention of a demonic entity. Maybe you deliberately sought it as a means to gain power, or perhaps it wheedled its way into your existence and now won’t let go. The entity became a patron of yours, offering guidance when sought and assistance against your foes. One night it will turn on you and demand something. You will be unable to refuse its request. Until that time, your patron counts as three dots in Mentor and two dots in Allies.

Psychic Leech

Cost: 5pt.
At the cost of one Willpower point, you may feed on the Willpower of your victims from a distance. The consumed Willpower strengthens the potency of your own blood, effectively transforming it into temporary blood that dissipates at the end of the night. These temporary blood points may be spent just like regular blood points, but cannot be lost due to damage or blood drain, do not affect hunger rolls for frenzy, and may not be used to create or sustain blood bonds or ghouls. To activate this ability, the target must have at least one of your blood points in their system, and must be engaged in eye contact with you.

Spectral Sepulcher

Cost: 5pt.
You have become the final resting place for a ghost and they are now forever bound to your body. Maybe you deliberately sought out this ghost, or perhaps it found you through serendipity. The ghost is now something of a patron to you, offering guidance (when asked for... or not) and assistance against your enemies. However it's motivations are to preserve its home - you - and how it believes this should be accomplished may not always align with what you might want to accomplish. When at odds, roll your Willpower vs the ghost's (7). If you lose, you must do what the ghost wants. Your spectral patron counts as three dots in Mentor and two dots in Allies.

Touch of the Wyld

Cost: 5pt.
Unlike nearly all other undead, you have no obvious Wyrmtaint. You are invisible to those who have the ability to naturally sense the Wyrm, smelling as a normal human might. Your true nature is only to be realized by displaying supernatural abilities or through some powerful extrasensory perception, such as reading one’s aura with Auspex, or a similarly functioning ability, such as the Gifts bestows until Garou by Luna. Even those with the Merit Scent For the Wyrm can’t smell your sin without the aid of disciplines.

Unbondable

Cost: 5pt.
You are immune to being blood bound. Tremere cannot take this Merit.

Blasphemous Pact

Cost: 6pt.
In your recent past or long ago, you knowingly made a pact with a being of unadulterated wickedness. Whether the being was a demon of immense power, a reaper wishing to claim your soul, or some greater monster seeking knowledge in exchange for its foul blessing, your pact resulted in your receipt of a gift. This gift allows you to stave off the Curse of Caine, to a degree. Perhaps your gift allows you the ability to walk in daytime whilst under cover. Maybe you can eat uncooked meat, still running with blood. The gift may allow you to breed. The dark nature of the pact means all this comes at a price. The entity with whom you consort will one night take everything you own, and bring it to ruin. It will destroy all relationships, any reputation, and any good you may achieve. It will claim your soul, and likely the souls of those close to you. Speak to the Storyteller about the nature of your gift. The Storyteller will decide on the price you must pay.

Nine Lives

Cost: 6pt.
Fate has granted you the opportunity to come as close to Final Death as anyone can get and still survive. When a roll occurs that would result in your death, the roll is made again. If the next roll succeeds, then you live — and one of your nine lives is used up. If that subsequent roll fails, then another reroll is made, until either a successful roll occurs or your nine lives are used up. The Storyteller should keep careful count of how many lives the character has remaining.

True Faith

Cost: 7pt.
You have a deep-seated faith in and love for God, or whatever name you choose to call the Almighty. You begin the game with one point of True Faith (see the sidebar on p. 372); this Trait adds one die per point to all Willpower and Virtue rolls. You must have a Humanity of 9 or higher to choose this Merit, and if you lose even a single point, all your Faith points are lost and may be regained only when the lost Humanity is recovered. Individuals with True Faith are capable of performing magical acts akin to miracles, but the exact nature of those acts are up to the Storyteller.

Clan Specific

Assamites

Sectarian Ally

Cost: 1pt.
You have a close friend in one of the Kindred sects. Perhaps you are a warrior who is in touch with one of the antitribu, a vizier who shares common business interests with some Camarilla Ventrue, or a sorcerer who corresponds with one of the rare blood magicians of the Anarch Movement. Your ally can help you navigate the currents of their sect, but they might want something in exchange from time to time.

Thousand Meter Killer

Cost: 1pt.
You have proven yourself worthy to join the Thousand Meter Club through your remarkable skill with the sniper rifle. The difficulty of all rolls associated with sniping is reduced by -1. You also double the normal range when using a sniper rifle as a weapon.

Brujah

Fury’s Focus

Cost: 3pt.
Prerequisite: Path of Entelechy
Brujah who have devoted themselves to mastering their frenzies through the Path of Entelechy sometimes find tangible benefits resulting from their efforts. A Brujah with this Merit may briefly delay the full onset of frenzy.

System: The player spends a Willpower point at the onset of frenzy and then rolls the Brujah’s Entelechy rating. The difficulty is one higher than the original roll to resist frenzy. The Brujah still frenzies, but the player controls her character’s actions for one turn per success. Furthermore, when the period of partial control ends and the Brujah loses control, the difficulty of any degeneration rolls triggered by sins committed during the frenzy are reduced by the number of successes rolled, to a minimum difficulty of 4.

Dynamic Personality

Cost: 5pt.
Your natural charisma draws mortals to you like groupies to a rock star. Consequently, it is easier for you to acquire certain Backgrounds related to mortals.

System: In addition to any Backgrounds acquired at character creation or through roleplay, you can purchase new Backgrounds with experience points at the end of each story. The available Backgrounds are Allies, Contacts, Herd, Retainers, and each new dot costs the current rating in experience points.

Followers of Set

Drug Resistance

Cost: 2pt.
The Setite religion is one fraught with vices, both to compromise enemies and to enlighten initiates. Cultists tend to build up a tolerance to the substances they take directly (if human or ghoul) or through the blood of prey (if Kindred). You are unusually resistant to alcohol, narcotics, and similar addictive substances. You can pretend to be far more under the influence than you are in order to take advantage of an opponent. All rolls to resist the effects of such substances are at -2 difficulty.

Addictive Blood

Cost: 3pt.
You don’t just peddle narcotics; through the blessings of the Dark God, you are the perfect drug. Your blood is especially delicious to others, Kindred or kine. Whoever tastes your blood must, during any subsequent scenes that they meet you, drink again or spend a Willpower point to avoid the pangs of craving. These cravings add +2 difficulty to any Mental or Social rolls. Setites with this Merit find it much easier to blood bond an opponent, as once they have tasted the tainted vitae, they will do almost anything to drink it again.

Setite Initiate

Cost: 5pt.
You were Embraced into a Clan other than the Followers of Set. However, you have accepted the Setite religion, undergone the vetting process and rites, and have been formally inducted into the cult. You have access to Serpentis and Setite Blood Sorcery (though you pay out-of-Clan costs to learn them). You may even study one of their Paths of Enlightenment.

It is important to note that “Setites” from other Clans or bloodlines are not treated as second-class citizens. You are no longer a dupe they can string along. Once you are in, you are a sibling of faith, which is a much more important distinction than blood. An outsider accepting the Dark God is a joyous event, even to the most conservative elder. There are even rumors of non-Kindred supernatural beings joining the cult.

Gangrel

Hive-Minded

Cost: 1 or 2pt.
Your Animalism works on insects and other creepy-crawlies in addition to animals. If you select the two-point version of this merit, your Protean forms may take the form of an insectoid swarm rather than a single creature (though the swarm must be of a size and mechanical equivalent to a wolf or a bat, as appropriate).

Skald

Cost: 2pt.
Anytime you make an Occult roll to know a fact about vampiric history, you may add a die to your dice pool. Further, you have exceptional memory for oral histories, and you are a quick study when it comes to memorizing large amounts of rote information. This is not true eidetic memory, but constitutes the ability to memorize poetic eddas, codes, or complex messages with only a few hours of study.

Lesser Mark of the Beast

Cost: 4pt.
Common to the Gangrel known as the Knights of Avalon, you are able to control how your Beast manifests more than others do. Whenever you would gain an animalistic feature, roll your current Willpower (difficulty 12 - Humanity rating, maximum 9). If successful, you manage to channel your humanity to avoid gaining an animalistic feature. However, your Beast is further from you, making you at +2 difficulty to rolls involving Animalism or Protean (or combo Disciplines involving those powers) for the rest of the evening. Vampires on a Path of Enlightenment lose all access to this Merit.

Totemic Change

Cost: 5pt.
Your Protean forms are flexible; you may choose a different animal form each time you change shape. The form you choose each time must follow all the conventions and rules of standard Protean animal shapes; you simply may choose to appear as a different animal each time you take Beast Form.

Giovanni

Cannibal

Cost: 1pt.
Most vampires can’t eat food, and even those who can force it down, don’t gain sustenance from it. Like them, you still can’t stomach the crap most mortals eat. Human meat, on the other hand, brings you great joy. It can be baked, fried, or even raw, and you can tuck right in, and even gain sustenance. Even other vampires look askance at Kindred who devour their prey, though the Dunsirn applaud your respect for tradition.

In addition to the blood points every human can provide, you can cannibalize a mortal and gain even more. An average human can provide up to seven helpings of meat (one per health level). Each helping provides you with one blood point.

Consanguineous Resistance

Cost: 1pt.
Your character cannot be blood bound by anyone who shares his mortal bloodline. That is, if you were born into the Giovanni family, you cannot be bound by anyone else who was born a Giovanni, though you can still be bound by, say, a Pisanob of the Giovanni Clan, or by Kindred of any other Clan. Similarly, a Dunsirn with Consanguineous Resistance could not be bound by others who were born into the mortal Dunsirn family, but could be bound by a Milliner of the Giovanni Clan.

The Giovanni are extremely suspicious of anyone known to manifest this quirk. Although this blood-borne aberration hasn’t been documented, a few savvy Giovanni have a rough idea of what it is and does. It’s generally associated with being a rebellious young smartass who needs to be put down. This is not as unfair as it sounds; by the time a bond resistance is really obvious, it’s likely because a punishment isn’t working. A character who is discovered to have this trait probably earns her sire’s hostility at the very least.

Mortuario

Cost: 2 or 4pt.
You died. Perhaps you were murdered, or simply had a car accident. Whatever the cause, you were gone. But your sire found you too useful, or couldn’t let you go. You were Embraced using the Ferryman’s Recall ritual. The Embrace left you with the scars of your death, eternal tracework reminders of your trip to the other side. It also left you with the taut, pallid complexion of the dead. In addition to the traditional weakness of your Clan, you also suffer disfigurement from your time as a true corpse. While you are able to heal yourself just like any other vampire, the wounds do not heal cleanly. You retain the scars of every experience. Depending on the nature of the damage, this can make social dealings exceedingly difficult, and may decrease your Appearance dots over time (even to 0). However, your time across the Shroud also gave you a natural feel for necromantic blood magic. The difficulties of all Necromancy rolls are reduced by one. This trait costs 4 points for characters who already have an appearance of 0 (such as Samedi and the Harbingers of Skulls), or 2 points for any other Kindred. It is an incredibly rare condition even among the Giovanni, and essentially unknown outside the Clan. Giovanni with this Merit generally arouse the superstition of their Clan, and are treated with a definite wariness, particularly by anziani. Characters with the Mortuario Merit may not also possess the Sanguine Incongruity Merit or similar flaws such as Monstrous.

Sanguine Incongruity

Cost: 5pt.
Giovanni with this atavism are few and far between. Kindred possessing it do not bear the traditional Giovanni Clan weakness, the so-called Curse of Lamia; their Kiss causes no more damage than the blood loss itself. These vampires acquire a peculiar pallor upon their Embrace, however — they look like corpses, and no amount of blood ingestion can flush their features (as other vampires are able to do). Indeed, the bearer of this Merit more closely resembles the Clan’s Cappadocian ancestors, and they have a slightly unnerving air about them. As a result, all rolls involving a Social attribute (Charisma, Manipulation, or Appearance) are at +1 difficulty.

Giovanni with this Merit are afforded wide berth, as the Giovanni tend to be quite superstitious about it. Characters with the Sanguine Incongruity Merit may not also possess the Mortuario Merit.

Lasombra

Court Favorite

Cost: 1-5pt.
While the Courts of Blood are usually difficult to sway, you have become very good at shifting the balance. A mixture of experience and political empathy allow you to know just the right way to nudge the decision in your direction, or perhaps for that of your client. Any roll made that will affect the decision in a Court of Blood is granted a bonus or penalty (whichever is in your favor) in dice equal to the level you have of this Merit.

Eyes of Shadow

Cost: 1-4pt.
There is something about your eyes that makes you look dark and dangerous. Making eye contact with you is like staring into the Abyss. It may not be obvious why, but anyone you talk to gets a chill when they meet your gaze. The difficulty for any Intimidation roll is reduced by the number of points in this Merit (to a minimum of 2).

Bigger Boys Came

Cost: 2pt.
When someone uses their contacts to their advantage, you can try to use yours to overrule them. You might get an editor to quash a reporter’s story, or get a gang boss to stop his thugs taking down a rival. To do this you must make a roll using Manipulation + Contacts (difficulty 8). If you can get more successes than the Contacts rating of your opponent, their contacts fail to come through for them.

Call of the Sea

Cost: 2pt.
There is something about the sea that makes you feel at home. You are in tune with the tides and rhythm of the ocean. When on a boat in the ocean or on a river, you may add a die to all your dice pools except for Disciplines.

Controllable Night Sight

Cost: 2pt.
Your night vision is extraordinarily good, even for a vampire. The deepest shadows are like looking into a well-lit room for you. However, in normal light or bright conditions, you have to switch back to less-sensitive vision, or the weakest light quickly blinds you. While your night sight is active, you suffer no penalties for the dark and can see perfectly well. Should you use it in well-lit conditions; you suffer a penalty inversely proportional to the usual penalties for darkness.

Secret Stash

Cost: 2-5pt.
You have several resources, sleeper agents, or followers hidden away for a rainy day. For each level of this Merit you have one unassigned Background point “sitting in storage” (2 gives you one point, 3 gives you two points, and so on). At any time, you may spend as many of them as you like to increase your level in Allies, Contacts, Herd, Influence, Mentor, Resources, or Retainers. Once spent, the points remain assigned permanently, but until then they cannot be affected by anything. This allows the vampire to create a new resource in an instant, without requiring the expenditure of experience points or awaiting a downtime. The vampire is not really gaining new levels, but revealing levels he has had all along.

Aura of Command

Cost: 3pt.
Whether you are good at barking orders or simply have a commanding tone, people tend to do what you tell them to do. You are not so much a natural leader as a born commander. When using the Leadership skill to get others to obey you, the difficulty is reduced by two.

King or Queen of Shadow

Cost: 4pt.
It is hard to hold onto your Humanity within the Sabbat, or even simply as a vampire. However, you draw strength from your ability to empathize with the kine. Any degeneration checks you make while on Path of Humanity reduce their difficulty by two.

Long-Term Planning

Cost: 4pt.
You never leave anything to chance; every action is a carefully considered stratagem. Once per session you may declare an action you are about to take is actually “all part of your plan” and reduce its difficulty by two points. The Storyteller may veto the use of this ability on particular rolls. The player and Storyteller should keep a note of each of these occasions and decide how they are linking together into a grand scheme.

Instrument of God

Cost: 5pt.
Your self-confidence comes not from a belief in your own abilities, but due to a direct manifesto from the Lord. You have a divine purpose and He works through you, even though your goals may seem anything but holy. Whether it is because of you powerful will or an actual connection to the divine, you gain three additional dice to resist the powers of True Faith when they are used against you, including soaking damage from True Faith abilities.

Malkavians

Distracting Aura

Cost: 2pt.
Reading an aura using Auspex requires the viewer to focus on recurring patterns and colors to detect a target’s emotional state. Because of the unique state of your psyche, your aura is even harder to read than most. All uses of Aura Perception are at a +2 difficulty against you.

Prophetic Dreams

Cost: 2pt.
You have dreams during your daylight sleep. Dreams you remember. Sometimes, they even come true. By spending a Willpower point upon rising for the evening, you may have the Storyteller give your character a lucid dream featuring foreshadowing about upcoming events, characters, and situations.

Cold Read

Cost: 3pt.
Whenever you meet someone for the first time, you may spend a number of points of Willpower equal to your Perception. For each point spent, you may ask the Storyteller one question about the character. The Storyteller must either answer truthfully or let you take the Willpower point back to you to avoid answering the question.

Nosferatu

Foul Blood

Cost: 1pt.
Your blood is vile; in fact, it tastes so disgusting it requires a Willpower roll (difficulty 6) just to avoid gagging and retching after tasting it. If someone is foolish enough to attempt diablerie on you, they need to succeed in three (difficulty 9) Willpower rolls to go through with it. The blood is so disgusting that no one can keep it down long enough to use it to become a ghoul, either.

Lizard Limbs

Cost: 1pt.
Like a lizard, you are able to actually shed parts of your body. By spending a blood point and a little effort, you can detach a hand or foot, or even an arm or leg. This might be to escape bonds or a grapple. Unfortunately, the appendage will not reattach, and you will have to regrow that over time (usually a couple of days for a hand or foot, and a week for a limb). You also suffer a -3 dice pool penalty to actions that would require the use of more limbs.

Long Fingers

Cost: 1pt.
You have been blessed with unusually long and graceful fingers. This means you have an easier time with fine manipulation as well as grappling, gaining an extra die when attempting such actions.

Monstrous Maw

Cost: 1pt.
You have either oversized tusks for fangs, or a huge mouth full of sharp teeth. Whatever form it takes, your mouth is that of a monster. When attacking with a bite you do an additional point of damage. You may also add a die to your Intimidation dice pool when you smile.

Piscine

Cost: 1pt.
Water is a far more comfortable environment for you, be it the sea or sewer effluent. Rolls involving swimming or underwater movement have their difficulty reduced by 1.

Slimy

Cost: 1pt.
You secrete an ooze, which is as disgusting as it sounds. The ooze covers your entire body and soaks into your clothes. It makes you slippery and difficult to hold, requiring opponents to gain two more successes to grapple you. The dampness also makes you a little fire resistant, reducing your difficulty to soak fire damage by 1.

Spawning Pool

Cost: 1-3pt.
You have a spawning pool of your own (or possibly donate heavily to the Clan’s main pool). Creating such a pool takes time, and requires regular infusions of blood, at least six blood points a week for a year.

The Merit grants its level as a dice pool bonus to the Nosferatu’s use of Animalism in their home city, but only with animals considered vermin, such as rats and cockroaches. Essentially the bonus is only available for creatures that might conceivably drink regularly from the tainted blood.

Once established, the spawning pool requires twice its level in blood points each week to it. Without proper maintenance, its level will drop by one. It can be rebuilt by maintaining it at the new level and adding four additional blood points each week for six months.

The Merit cannot be improved above its initial level, as this also represents the convenience of its location and the variety of creatures that might find it.

Tunnel Rat

Cost: 1-5pt.
You are remarkably adept at moving through the underground tunnels that you call your home. When attempting to navigate, escape, or track through sewers and underground places you know, you gain an additional die for every point you have in this Merit.

Sleep Unseen

Cost: 2pt.
The power of Obfuscate usually requires you to concentrate at least a little. However, you are able to lock the power on, allowing you to sleep while remaining hidden. To do so requires the expenditure of blood point, but it will last throughout the day’s rest. Those with Auspex can still attempt to detect you, but mortals will be unaware of your danctuary. This can be a useful trick for Kindred who like to travel.

Tough Hide

Cost: 2pt.
Your skin is much tougher than usual, possibly like that of a rhino or a lizard. This hide protects you against most damage, granting you an extra die when making a soak roll. However, this bonus does not apply against fire and sunlight.

False Reflection

Cost: 3pt.
Even when using their Obfuscate abilities, Nosferatu still show up in their true form when noticed by machines, such as cameras or video surveillance. With this ability, the Nosferatu can extend their power to recorded images and media. However, as with Mask of the Thousand Faces, the original image isn’t actually changed; it is just that people see it the way the Nosferatu wants it seen. Unfortunately, computers are not so easily fooled: if the image is used for facial recognition software (for instance), the computer will see the Nosferatu’s real face and fail to find a match. The Nosferatu has best take care how this power is used, as it may wear off in time. Some archived photos have given librarians a nasty surprise, years after going into storage.

Patagia

Cost: 4pt.
Your arms and legs have leathery flaps of skin between them, similar to that of a flying squirrel. While they make finding clothes a nightmare, they also allow you to glide for short distances, given enough height and a decent wind. The Storyteller might require an Athletics roll when it comes to landing.

Rugged Bad Looks

Cost: 5pt.
While you are still hideous, you are not quite as ugly as most Nosferatu. You still have an appearance of 0, but you might pass for human in the right light. It is a still a good idea to cover up and stay in the shadows, but the sight of you (or even the smell of you) is not cause for someone to immediately think of you as a freak or a trauma victim.. Having said that, you are still ugly enough to unnerve the crap out of most people.

Ravnos

Antitoxin Blood

Cost: 1pt.
Although vampires are typically immune to mortal drugs and poisons, there are supernatural venoms that can affect Kindred physiology. A Ravnos with this Merit is immune to all forms of drugs and poisons, including the venoms and toxins of supernatural creatures or those created by supernatural powers.

Brahmin

Cost: 1pt.
As a member of the Brahmin jati, you are a priest, artist, teacher, or other pillar of society. Perhaps you keep the lore of the Clan, or perhaps you act as an advisor to other Ravnos in need of wisdom. Once per session, if you fail an Academics or Expression roll, you may immediately reroll it.

You do not have to purchase this Merit to be a member of the Brahmin jati, but only members of the Brahmin jati may have this Merit.

Kshatriya

Cost: 1pt.
You are a member of the Kshatriya jati; perhaps you are a warrior, a descendant of rulers, or a member of the military. Your role is to protect the Ravnos in war, and govern in peace. Once per session, you regain a Willpower when you successfully use a combat maneuver.

You do not have to purchase this Merit to be a member of the Kshatriya jati, but only members of the Kshatriya jati may have this Merit.

Legerdemain

Cost: 1pt.
You’re extremely good at sleight of hand and other physical tricks. Difficulties when using Subterfuge for physical trickery, shell games, card tricks, and so forth, are decreased by two.

Mute Devotion

Cost: 1pt.
Your Animalism carries an unusual side effect: it lingers in the minds of the beasts you speak with or control, lending them a certain resistance to others. When someone else attempts to command a creature you have previously controlled with Animalism, their difficulty levels are at +2.

Vaishya

Cost: 1pt.
The Vaishya jati are tasked with utilizing influence, maintaining the human herds, and keeping finances. They are often seen as traders and merchants, but to the Ravnos, they are also a critical part of maintaining the Masquerade that hides vampires from mortal hunters. Once per session, you may call on one of your Backgrounds as if you had an extra dot in that Background (up to the normal maximum of 5). You do not have to purchase this Merit to be a member of the Vaishya jati, but only members of the Vaishya jati may have this Merit.

Critters

Cost: 2pt.
You’re excellent with animals — so much so that they constantly seek to befriend you. Wherever you go, the animals are happy to see you, and more often than not, happy to help you when you ask for their aid. You receive a bonus die on Social rolls to affect small animals. Further, animal companions who have had continual interaction with you see you as something of a pet, and occasionally bring you small useful things. Once per game session, animals will bring you a useful piece of information or a small item relevant to events. This item might occasionally play into the individual Ravnos’ particular vice, as the animals quickly pick up on what pleases their friend.

Ravnos Jati

Cost: 2pt.
You belong to a widely-recognized Ravnos jati, affording you some measure of status with your Clan members. Whenever you interact with another Vagabond, treat your Status as one level higher; if they also belong to your jati, treat your Background as two levels higher and your Allies, Contacts, or Mentor as one higher where your jati is concerned. Once per session, if you’re in a city with a significant Ravnos population, you can find one member of your jati with no issue, who will likely help you out with no questions asked. Once per chapter, a member of your jati will seek you out for help with a troublesome and dangerous task.

Heart of Needles

Cost: 3pt.
Your natural abilities with illusions have rendered you particularly jaded and unimpressible. How can anything be as perfect as your own imagination? Because of this, your heart is harder than most, and you have a significant resistance to emotion control. All powers and Social challenges that attempt to manipulate you emotionally are made at a +2 difficulty.

Toreador

Indelible

Cost: 1 or 2pt.
Whereas other vampires’ bodies return to the state they were in at the Embrace each evening, any body modifications you get after the Embrace remain as they are until you actively spend a Willpower point to return your body to its tabula rasa state. This Merit applies to changes as simple as dyeing or cutting your hair to modifications as complicated as tattoos, piercings, or even small implants.

If the Merit only allows for cosmetic alterations, it is worth 1 point. If it allows for more utilitarian alterations, such as RFID implants that activate certain electronic devices, then it is worth 2 points.

Impressive Restraint

Cost: 2pt.
When you haven’t fed, it can be torturous to be near mortals. The pounding thrum of blood through their veins does not leave you nearly as tempted as it might other Kindred. When opportunity presents itself, the difficulty of all Self-Control rolls to resist hunger are made against a -2 difficulty. Characters on Paths of Enlightenment that require Instinct cannot take this Merit.

Master of the Masquerade

Cost: 2pt.
There are many small tics, nervous habits, and autonomous bodily functions (like breathing) that Kindred simply forget to do. They can be unnervingly still or forget to breathe, particularly when they think they’re alone. You never let down your guard. The act of breathing remains an unconscious habit to you, and you never lapse into that eerie statue-like stillness, even when transfixed or concentrating. Consequently, the difficulties of all Social rolls are lowered by one when interacting with mortals. This Merit does not allow you to eat food or benefit from the blush of health — those Merits are still required to be a true master of the Masquerade.

Slowed Degeneration

Cost: 5pt.
Your Humanity is strong and can more easily withstand the Beast’s assaults. You gain two additional dice on any Conscience roll. This degree of moral resilience allows a well-behaved vampire to lose Humanity at a much slower rate than would otherwise be possible. Only vampires following Humanity may take this Merit, and the Merit is lost forever in the event that the vampire takes up another Path of Enlightenment.

Tremere

Embraced without the Cup

Cost: 1pt.
For some reason you did not drink the blood of the elders when you were inducted into Clan Tremere. More dangerously, it may have had no effect on you. As a result, you are not bound to the Clan the way most Tremere are. Should it be discovered, it will usually be corrected, but one might almost believe there was some purpose to this lapse, as the Tremere don’t make mistakes. Perhaps the Clan has a special task in mind for you, one where you might be forced to act against the Clan to maintain a cover….

Secret Society Member

Cost: 1pt.
You have found and joined one of the many secret societies in Clan Tremere. Your character must be suitable to join, such as having Necromancy to join the Covenant. You might pick one of the societies listed here or create one of your own. In most cases, your society membership should be kept secret, but your allegiance to it is not considered a crime. While your society expects you to uphold its tenets and agenda, they can also be counted upon to back you up and help you increase your power within the pyramid.

Keys to the Library

Cost: 1-5pt.
You have one of the most sought after positions in the chantry: a librarian. It is one of your duties to catalogue and maintain the magical lore kept in your chantry. This means you have complete access to it, and get to decide who can see it and who can’t. A vast array of rituals and Thaumaturgical knowledge resides here, making it simple to learn many of the secrets of magic. No matter how restrictive your chantry, you have complete access to the library for research. The cost of this merit is the same as the chantry’s Library rating.

Outside Haven

Cost: 2pt.
You maintain your own private haven outside the chantry and Tremere control. Most Tremere are expected to rest in the chantry, where the Clan can keep an eye on them. However, you have been trusted with a little more privacy. This might be because you have already proved your loyalty, or perhaps because they are testing it.

Unmarked Antitribu

Cost: 2 or 5pt.
While you are part of the Sabbat and a traitor to House and Clan Tremere, somehow you remain unmarked by the antitribu curse. You are not easily recognized as a renegade Tremere, and the magic that burned so many of your brethren cannot target you. Further, other Sabbat members cannot judge you at a glance. Those of the Telyavelic bloodline can purchase this Merit at 2 points, while other Tremere pay 5 points.

Quartermaster

Cost: 3pt.
You are one of the Kindred responsible for maintaining and organizing the chantry’s mundane supplies. You may take anything from the chantry’s stores as defined by the chantry’s Stores rating. While you will have to return or replace anything you borrow, you have access the whole range of equipment appropriate to the size of the chantry. This might range from assault weapons and explosives to advanced medical and scientific equipment.

Tzimisce

Bioluminescence

Cost: 1pt.
Perhaps through biological expertise, or perhaps by unlocking something primordial within, you have accessed the secrets of bioluminescence. Using Vicissitude, you may grant yourself (through Malleable Visage) or others (via Fleshcraft) the ability to emit a soft glow. With muscle control and practice, you can control the color and pattern of the illumination. This can light a soft glow in the dark, create beautiful displays, or even act as a primal form of communication. Some Fiends grant their ghouls or childer bioluminescence, developing an eerily nuanced and wordless language with their thralls and broods. Only characters with at least one dot of Vicissitude may purchase this Merit.

Pain Tolerance

Cost: 2pt.
Maybe you are a badass or shut off your nerves through Vicissitude. Maybe your sire put you through so many intricate hells that it would be tough for anyone else to compete. Maybe it just turns you on. Regardless, at Hurt or Injured, you suffer no wound penalties, though you still suffer full penalties at Wounded and below. You must have a Conviction or Courage rating of 3 or more to take this Merit.

Dracon’s Temperament

Cost: 3pt.
You emulate the ideal of Azi Dahaka within and without, to levels visceral and abstract. Your psyche flows with the permutable nature of change. Like the protean Dracon, you are a whirlwind of temperaments. This is not multiple personalities. You are one identity shown through the prism of ever-shifting Natures. No anchor fetters your sense of self. You can be any you.

At the start of each story, you may choose one Personality Archetype to function as your Nature, spending the rest of the story perceiving the world through that perspective. You also regain Willpower according to your new Nature and may be affected by other effects or Discipline powers as per your new Nature as well.

Haven Affinity

Cost: 3pt.
You are the land. The land is you. The home soil calls to you. You give to it, and it gives to you. Your connection to the earth of your prime haven grants you an extra die to all dice pools when operating there. It also acts as a mystic beacon, allowing you to home in on its location with a standard Perception + Survival roll (difficulty 6), +1 difficulty when a state or country separates you; +2 if you’re halfway across the globe. This applies only to your primary haven.

Revenant Disciplines

Cost: 3pt.
The blood of your revenant family runs deep, deeper than the Embrace. The Disciplines that were innate to you as a ghoul have remained so as a Cainite. At character creation, select the ghoul family from which you hail (V20, pp. 503-506). Instead of the Tzimisce’s standard complement of Animalism, Auspex, and Vicissitude, you draw from your three family Disciplines for your starting allocation (though you may buy other Disciplines with freebies, as normal). You trade in the entire set of Tzimisce Clan Disciplines for the set of revenant family Disciplines, for the purposes of in-Clan Experience cost.

Promethean Clay

Cost: 5pt.
Your flesh ripples and molds itself to your preternatural will, almost before you consciously invoke the change. The difficulty to use any Vicissitude power on yourself is two less than normal, and you may activate Vicissitude powers reflexively at your full dice pool while taking other actions. Powers that require multiple turns to activate still require the usual duration. The change simply occurs without conscious direction. As a final benefit, you need no physical sculpting to use the first three levels of Vicissitude on yourself, as your flesh undulates and extrudes to its desired shape. Only characters with at least one dot of Vicissitude may purchase this Merit.

Ventrue

Connoisseur

Cost: 2pt.
Your study of the Auspex Discipline, combined with your rarified tastes, allows you an uncanny empathy and connection to a victim, giving you powerful insights into the character of any whose blood you taste.

System: The character tastes another’s blood (potentially risking a blood bond), and player rolls Perception + Empathy (difficulty 6 for mortals or 8 for Kindred). If the blood came from a mortal, each success allows him to learn one of the following: the mortal’s Nature, her Demeanor, any Derangements she may possess, whether she is blood bonded, and whether she carries any blood-borne diseases. If the vitae came from a vampire, he can learn all of the previous information, plus anything discoverable with the first level of the Path of Blood. The Ventrue may taste the blood of a mortal who does not fit within his feeding restriction long enough to use this ability, but he must immediately spit it out afterward.

Vampires that do not have Auspex •• cannot take this Merit.

Blessed by St. Gustav

Cost: 4pt.
Many Ventrue antitribu replace their traditional affinity for Presence with an aptitude for Auspex by means of the ignobilis ritus known as the Prayer to St. Gustav. For your piety and devotion to the Sabbat cause, you have been especially blessed and have an affinity for both Disciplines.

System: This Merit is identical to Additional Discipline Merit found on, except that it can only be used to add Auspex as a fourth in-Clan discipline. Only Ventrue antitribu can take this Merit.

Flaws

Physical

Hard of Hearing

Bonus: 1pt.
Your hearing is defective. The difficulties of any rolls involving the use of hearing are increased by two.

Short

Bonus: 1pt.
You are well below average height — four and a half feet (1.5 meters) tall or less. You have difficulty reaching or manipulating objects designed for normal adult size, and your running speed is one-half that of an average human.

Smell of the Grave

Bonus: 1pt.
You exude an odor of dampness and newly turned earth, which no amount of scents or perfumes will cover. Mortals in your immediate presence become uncomfortable, so the difficulties of all Social rolls to affect mortals increase by one.

Tic/Twitch

Bonus: 1pt.
You have some sort of repetitive motion that you make in times of stress, and it’s a dead giveaway as to your identity. Examples include a nervous cough, constantly wringing your hands, cracking your knuckles, and so on. It costs one Willpower to refrain from engaging in your tic.

Bad Sight

Bonus: 1 or 3pt.
Your sight is defective. The difficulties of any die rolls involving the use of your eyesight are increased by two. As a one-point Flaw, this condition can be corrected with glasses or contacts; as a three-point Flaw, the condition is too severe to be corrected.

Fourteenth Generation

Bonus: 2pt.
You were created five or fewer years ago by a member of the Thirteenth Generation. Though you have 10 blood points in your body, only eight of them may be used to heal wounds, power Disciplines, raise Attributes, etc. You can still use the final two blood points for other purposes, though. The blood point costs of nightly rising, creating and sustaining ghouls, and creating blood bonds remains the same as for other vampires.

You cannot raise any Discipline above four dots.

Taking this Flaw precludes you from taking the Generation Background, and you may not start with Status, either. You are likely a Clanless Caitiff, for your blood is probably too thin to pass down the distinguishing characteristics of a Clan. Most Fourteenth-Generation vampires should also take the Thin Blood Flaw.

Fifteenth Generation

Bonus: 4pt.
Your vitae is so weak that only six of your 10 blood points can be used for Disciplines, healing or raising Attributes. For these functions, you must expend two blood points to obtain the effect a normal vampire would achieve with one. (The cost for nightly rising remains a single blood point.) What’s more, you cannot create or sustain ghouls, create a blood bond, or sire a vampiric childe. You can use the remaining four blood points to survive through the day and wake up each night, nothing more.

You cannot raise any Discipline above three dots.

The weakening of the Curse of Caine has compensations, though (which distinguish this Flaw from the Thin Blood Flaw itself). Sunlight does lethal damage to you, instead of aggravated damage as it does to other vampires. You can hold down mortal food and drink for an hour or so; other vampires vomit immediately if they try (unless they have the Eat Food Merit). Strangest of all, once in a while you might actually have a child the normal, human way... though it will hardly be a normal, human child.

Disfigured

Bonus: 2pt.
A hideous disfigurement makes your appearance disturbing and memorable. The difficulties of all die rolls relating to social interaction are increased by two. You may not have an Appearance rating greater than 2.

Dulled Bite

Bonus: 2pt.
For some reason your fangs never developed fully, or they may not have manifested at all. When feeding, you need to find some other method of making the blood flow. Failing that, you must achieve double the normal number of successes in order to make your bite penetrate properly. A number of Caitiff and high- Generation vampires often manifest this Flaw.

Infectious Bite

Bonus: 2pt.
You may not automatically lick the wounds of your feeding closed. In fact, your bites have a one in five chance of becoming infected and causing mortal victims to become seriously ill. The precise nature of the infection is determined by the Storyteller.

One Eye

Bonus: 2pt.
You have only one eye — which eye is missing is up to you. The difficulties of all Perception rolls involving eyesight are increased by two, and the difficulties of all die rolls requiring depth perception are increased by one (this includes ranged combat).

Vulnerability to Silver

Bonus: 2pt.
To you, silver is as painful and as deadly as the rays of the sun. You suffer aggravated wounds from any silver weapons (bullets, knives, etc.), and the mere touch of silver objects discomfits you.

Open Wound

Bonus: 2 or 4pt.
You have one or more wounds that refuse to heal, and which constantly drip blood. This slow leakage costs you an extra blood point per evening (marked off just before dawn), in addition to drawing attention to you. If the wound is visible, you are at + 1 difficulty for all Social-based rolls. For two points, the Flaw is simply unsightly and has the basic effect mentioned above; for four points the seeping wound is serious or disfiguring and includes the effects of the Flaw Permanent Wound (below).

Addiction

Bonus: 3pt.
You suffer from an addiction to a substance, which must now be present in the blood you drink (or you automatically frenzy, as per the Prey Exclusion Flaw). This can be alcohol, nicotine, hard drugs, or simply adrenaline. This substance always impairs you in some fashion.

Deformity

Bonus: 3pt.
You have some kind of deformity — a misshapen limb, hunchback, or clubfoot, for example — which affects your physical abilities and interactions with others. A hunchback, for instance, would lower a character’s Dexterity by two dots and increase the difficulty of die rolls relating to social skills by one. It is the responsibility of the Storyteller to determine the specific effects of the deformity chosen.

Glowing Eyes

Bonus: 3pt.
You have the stereotypical glowing eyes of vampire legend, which gives you a -1 difficulty on Intimidation rolls when you’re dealing with mortals. However, the tradeoffs are many; you must constantly disguise your condition (no, contacts don’t cut it); the glow impairs your vision and puts you at +1 difficulty on all sightbased rolls (including the use of ranged weapons); and the radiance emanating from your eye sockets makes it difficult to hide (+2 difficulty to Stealth rolls) in the dark.

Lame

Bonus: 3pt.
Your legs are damaged, which prevents you from running or walking easily. You are forced to walk with a cane or possibly leg braces, and you have a pronounced limp to your stride. Your walking speed is one-quarter that of a normal human, and running is impossible.

Lazy

Bonus: 3pt.
You are simply lazy, avoiding anything that requires effort on your part. Preferring to let others do the hard work, you lounge around. For any action that requires preparation, there’s a good chance you didn’t properly prepare. Difficulty rolls for spontaneous Physical actions (including combat, unless it’s part of a planned offensive) increase by one.

Monstrous

Bonus: 3pt.
Your physical form was twisted during the Embrace, and now reflects the Beast that rages inside you. Characters with this Flaw appear to be savage monsters and have Appearance ratings of zero. Nosferatu and other bloodlines whose weaknesses cause them to start off with Appearance zero cannot take this Flaw.

Permanent Fangs

Bonus: 3pt.
Your fangs do not retract, making it impossible for you to hide your true nature. While some mortals may think you’ve had your teeth filed or are wearing prosthetics, sooner or later you’re going to run into someone who knows what you truly are. You are also limited to a maximum Appearance rating of 3.

Permanent Wound

Bonus: 3pt.
You suffered injuries during your Embrace which your transformation somehow failed to repair. At the beginning of each night, you rise from sleep at the Wounded health level, though this may be healed by spending blood points.

Slow Healing

Bonus: 3pt.
You have difficulty healing wounds. It requires two blood points to heal one health level of bashing or lethal damage, and you heal one health level of aggravated damage every five days (plus the usual five blood points and Willpower expenditure).

Child

Cost: 4pt.
Most vampires begin their unlife in adulthood, but your sire, whether by necessity, cruelty, or peculiarity, Embraced you when you were a child. No matter how many years have passed, your body remains prepubescent. Your Strength and Stamina may not be higher than 2 and the difficulty of rolls to lead or command mortal adults increases by two.

Disease Carrier

Bonus: 4pt.
Your blood carries a lethal and highly contagious disease. The disease can be anything from rabies to HIV, and Kindred who drink your blood have a 10% chance of becoming a carrier as well. You must spend an extra blood point each night on awakening, or you will begin manifesting symptoms of the disease (increased chance to frenzy for rabies, reduced soak rolls for HIV, etc.).

Deaf

Bonus: 4pt.
You cannot hear. While you may be more resistant to some applications of Dominate, you also may not listen to electronic or vocal media, and the difficulties of many Perception rolls are increased by three.

Mute

Bonus: 4pt.
You cannot speak. You may communicate with the Storyteller and describe your actions, but cannot talk to player or Storyteller characters unless everyone concerned purchases a commonly understood sign language (via the Language Merit) or you write down what you wish to say.

Thin Blood

Bonus: 4pt.
Your blood is thin, weak, and does not sustain you well. All blood point costs are doubled (e.g., using blood-related Disciplines or healing damage), although you only lose one blood upon rising in the evening. Furthermore, you are unable to create a blood bond, and efforts to sire other vampires succeed only one in five times.

Flesh of the Corpse

Bonus: 5pt.
Your flesh does not fully regenerate itself once it is damaged. While you are able to heal yourself to the point of regaining full functionality, your skin still retains the cuts, tears, bullet holes, and other visible damage that you have incurred. Depending on the nature of the damage, this Flaw will make social dealings exceedingly difficult, and may decrease your Appearance dots over time (even to 0).

Infertile Vitae

Bonus: 5pt.
During your Embrace, something went horribly wrong, causing your blood to mutate under the stress of dying and rising again. All those you try to Embrace die. No matter what you do, you may not create any childer. However, your blood can still be used in blood rituals like Thaumaturgy and the Vaulderie, or for any other vampiric needs like making ghouls.

Infertile Vitae is currently restricted. You will need to speak with staff and obtain pre-approval prior to submitting your character sheet.

Blind

Bonus: 6pt.
You cannot see. Characters can compensate for the loss of vision by becoming more attuned to other sensory input, but visual cues and images are lost to them. Difficulties of all Dexterity-based rolls are increased by two. Oddly, vampires with Aura Perception (Auspex 2) are still able to use this ability, thought the information is interpreted via the other senses. On the other hand, vampires who need make eye contact to enact powers like Dominate against you are only at a penalty to do so.

Mental

Deep Sleeper

Bonus: 1pt.
When you sleep, it is very difficult for you to awaken. The difficulty of any roll to awaken during the day is increased by two.

Impatient

Bonus: 1pt.
You have no patience for standing around and waiting. You want to do things now — fuck those slowpokes trying to hold you back. Every time you are forced to wait around instead of acting, a Self-Control roll is required to see if you go tearing off on your own instead.

Nightmares

Bonus: 1pt.
You experience horrendous nightmares every time you sleep, and memories of them haunt you during your waking hours. Upon awakening, you must make a Willpower roll (difficulty 7) or lose a die on all actions for that night. A botched Willpower roll indicates that, even when awake, you still believe that you are locked in a nightmare.

Prey Exclusion

Bonus: 1pt.
You refuse to hunt a certain class of prey. You might refuse to feed on drug dealers, policemen, accountants, or rich people — if you accidentally feed upon such an individual, you automatically frenzy and must make a roll to prevent Humanity or Path loss (difficulty 7). Witnessing other Kindred feeding on the object of your exclusion might also provoke a frenzy, at the Storyteller’s discretion. Ventrue, owing to the limitations already imposed on their feeding by their Clan weakness, may not take this Flaw.

Shy

Bonus: 1pt.
You are distinctly ill at ease when dealing with people and try to avoid social situations whenever possible. Difficulties for all rolls involving social interaction with strangers are increased by two. If the character becomes the center of attention in a large group, difficulties are increased by three.

Soft-Hearted

Bonus: 1pt.
You cannot stand to watch others suffer. You avoid any situation that involves causing someone physical or emotional pain, unless you make a Willpower roll (difficulty 8). You must have a Humanity rating of 7 or above to take this Flaw — vampires on Paths of Enlightenment can only take this Flaw with Storyteller approval.

Speech Impediment

Bonus: 1pt.
You have a stammer or other speech impediment that hampers verbal communication. The difficulties of all die rolls involving verbal communication are increased by two. This Flaw must be roleplayed whenever possible.

Unconvinced

Bonus: 1pt.
You fail to see the need for the core ideologies of your Sect or Clan, and have gone on record as saying so. Taking your stand has made you suspect in the eyes of your superiors, and may have attracted the attention of your enemies as well.

Amnesia

Bonus: 2pt.
You are unable to remember anything about your past, yourself, or your family (whether mortal or vampiric), though your past might well come back to haunt you. Your origins and the circumstances behind your amnesia are for the Storyteller to determine, and she is encouraged to make it as interesting as possible.

Lunacy

Bonus: 2pt.
You are affected by the phases of the moon, increasing your chances to frenzy. Under the crescent moon, difficulties to avoid frenzy increase by one. Under the half or gibbous moon, difficulties rise by two. When the moon is full, difficulties increase by three.

Phobia

Bonus: 2pt.
You have an overpowering fear of something. Spiders, snakes, crowds, and heights are examples of common phobias. You must make a Courage roll every time you encounter the object of your fear. The difficulty of the roll is determined by the Storyteller. If you fail the roll, you must retreat from the object.

Short Fuse

Bonus: 2pt.
You are easily angered. Difficulties to avoid frenzy are two greater. Brujah vampires cannot take this Flaw, as they already suffer from a similar weakness.

Stereotype

Bonus: 2pt.
You buy heavily into all of the vampire stories you’ve read and heard. You wear a cape or body glitter, speak with an accent, and otherwise act in a cartoonish fashion. Such behavior is embarrassing in the extreme to other Kindred, who are likely to ostracize or mock you (+2 difficulty to Social rolls with other vampires who don’t share your habits). You also stand out to hunters.

Territorial

Bonus: 2pt.
You are extremely territorial, staking out a particular area as your hunting ground and reacting aggressively to trespassers. If another vampire enters your territory uninvited, you must make a frenzy roll. If you fail, you immediately attack the interloper and continue attacking until the intruder is dead or has left your hunting grounds. You are reluctant to leave your territory except in desperate circumstances.

Thirst for Innocence

Bonus: 2pt.
The sight of innocence — of any sort — arouses in you a terrible bloodlust. Roll Self-Control or Instincts, or else frenzy and attack the source of your hunger.

Vengeful

Bonus: 2pt.
You have a score to settle, incurred either during your mortal days or after the Embrace. You are obsessed with taking your revenge on an individual or group, and it is your overriding priority in any situation where you encounter the object of your revenge. You may temporarily resist your need for vengeance by spending a Willpower point.

Victim of the Masquerade

Bonus: 2pt.
The Camarilla’s propaganda machine did too good a job on you. Even after your Embrace you refused to believe you were a vampire. You remain convinced that there is some logical explanation for your condition, and spend as much time as you can searching for it. You also have problems feeding, and may insist on trying to eat regular food. None of these habits makes you particularly pleasant company for other Kindred. This Flaw must be roleplayed at all times, and is generally taken by Camarilla vampires.

Weak-Willed

Bonus: 3pt.
You are highly susceptible to Dominate and intimidation by others; Dominate attempts automatically affect you unless the Discipline wielder is of higher Generation, and your difficulties to resist Social abilities such as Intimidation or Leadership, as well as mind-altering spells or magic, are increased by two. Your Willpower Trait may never rise above 4.

Conspicuous Consumption

Bonus: 4pt.
It is not enough for you to draw nourishment from the blood of mortals — you believe you must also consumeyour victim’s heart, liver, and other blood-rich tissue. Of course, this will necessitate the deaths of all of your victims (unless you are extremely creative), which might lead to numerous problems with maintaining Humanity (and a low profile). Characters with this Flaw should additionally purchase the Eat Food Merit.

Guilt-Wracked

Bonus: 4pt.
You simply cannot come to grips with the fact that you must drink blood to survive. You suffer horrible guilt over each time you feed (roll Conscience, difficulty 7, or else frenzy every time you feed — characters with the Conviction Virtue cannot take this Flaw) and try to avoid doing so as much as possible. This means that you rarely have much blood in your system, leaving you vulnerable to both attacks and hunger-based frenzies.

Flashbacks

Bonus: 6pt.
You managed to make it through the Creation Rites or other similarly traumatic experience, but not wholly intact. The most insignificant thing can throw you into a different mood or state of mind, and as such your behavior is extremely unpredictable. Because of your precarious emotional state, your Willpower fluctuates. At the beginning of each story, make a Willpower roll (you may not spend Willpower for an automatic success). If you succeed, you may participate in the story as normal. If you fail, however, your Willpower score is considered to be 1 for the duration of that session, and you only have one Willpower point to spend. You may roll again at the beginning of the next session to see if you regain your Willpower.

Social

Botched Presentation

Bonus: 1pt.
When your sire presented you to the Prince of the city, you flubbed it. Now you’re convinced His Majesty hates you (whether he does or not). You need to succeed on a Willpower roll (difficulty 7) just to stand in front of the Prince or one of his duly authorized representatives without running, blubbering, or otherwise making a fool of yourself. This Flaw can only be taken by Camarilla vampires.

Dark Secret

Bonus: 1pt.
You have some sort of secret that, if uncovered, would be of immense embarrassment to you and would make you a pariah in the local Kindred community. This could be anything from having murdered an elder to being a member of the Anarchs.

Expendable

Bonus: 1pt.
Someone in power doesn’t want you around. Maybe she wants territory you possess, or is jealous of the attention you’re getting from a prize mortal retainer — the details are irrelevant. What does matter is that she has the power to maneuver you into dangerous situations “for the good of the Sect,” and has no compunctions about doing so.

Incomplete Understanding

Bonus: 1pt.
The whole matter has been explained to you, but you’re still not quite sure how things in your Sect work. Your imperfect understanding of the rules and regulations of your new existence means that sooner or later, you’re going to make a mistake. It’s only a matter of time….

Infamous Sire

Bonus: 1pt.
Your sire was, and perhaps still is, distrusted and disliked by many of the city’s Kindred. As a result, you aredistrusted and disliked as well.

Mistaken Identity

Bonus: 1pt.
You look similar to descriptions of another Kindred, which cause cases of mistaken identity. This can prompt numerous awkward or even dangerous situations, especially if your “twin” has a terrible reputation or is wanted for some crime.

New Arrival

Bonus: 1pt.
You’ve just arrived in your new city of residence, and don’t know anyone in the place. Existing factions may try to recruit or eliminate you, while vampires in positions of authority size you up and take your measure. Meanwhile, your ignorance of the city’s current events, history, and politics (not to mention the personality quirks of the vampires already in place) may cause you to make a serious blunder.

New Kid

Bonus: 1pt.
You’re the latest in the city to be Embraced or have yet to prove yourself to your Sect, and everyone knows it. That automatically puts you at the bottom of the social totem pole. Other neonates take every opportunity to demonstrate your inferiority, or rival packs constantly test your worthiness to the Sabbat. Even if someone else is added to the ranks of the unliving, you’re still regarded as something as a bit of a geek by your peers — a distinction that can have dangerous consequences if bullets start flying. All Social-related rolls are at +1 difficulty when you are dealing with other neonates. (Ancillae and elders lump you in with all the other neonates under their general disdain.)

Recruitment Target

Bonus: 1pt.
Someone in one of your Sect’s enemy organizations wants you, and they want you bad. Every effort is being made to recruit you, willing or no, and the press gangs usually show up at the worst possible time.

Sire’s Resentment

Bonus: 1pt.
Your sire dislikes you and wishes you ill. Given the smallest opportunity, she will actively seek to do you harm. Your sire’s allies also work against you, and many elders may resent you.

Special Responsibility

Bonus: 1pt.
Shortly after your Embrace, you volunteered for some task in order to gain respect and approval from the vampires around you. Now, you wish you had never opened your damn mouth! While you are not given any special credit for performing this duty, you would lose a lot of respect if you were to stop. The nature and the details of your duty should be worked out with the Storyteller in advance. Ideas can range from lending money to other Kindred to acting as a messenger or possibly gathering victims for ritae (such as Blood Feasts).

Sympathizer

Bonus: 1pt.
You have publicly expressed sympathy for some of the goals and policies of the enemies of your Sect. Your outspoken views on the subject have made you suspect in the eyes of the city’s hierarchy, and you may be suspected of (or arrested for) treason.

Vulgar

Bonus: 1pt.
Tact is a foreign concept to you, and you’re famous for being abrasive and generally unpleasant. Rolls involving social graces or delicate situations suffer +1 difficulty.

Enemy

Bonus: 1-5pt.
You have an enemy, or perhaps a group of enemies, who seek to harm you. The power of the enemy depends upon how many points the player wishes to spend (five points indicate the wrath of a Methuselah or other potent supernatural foe).

Rivalry

Bonus: 1-5pt.
Someone hates you so much that they cannot bear to leave you alone. The scale of this Flaw is similar to that of the Enemy Flaw (see above), but your Rival is not interested in seeing you dead. Rather, a Rival desires only to make your unlife as troublesome and hellish as possible. At lower point value, the Rival may also be a friend who arrives at precisely the worst moment to steal your thunder or make you embarrassed. At higher levels, your Rival loses sleep planning how to make your life miserable.

Bound

Bonus: 2pt.
You are blood bound to another vampire. Your regnant may not necessarily treat you badly, but the fact remains that your will is not entirely your own. The knowledge gnaws at you, even as you find yourself lost in devotion to your vampiric master. Sabbat vampires cannot take this Flaw.

Catspaw

Bonus: 2pt.
You’ve done dirty work for someone high up in the city’s hierarchy in the past — the Sheriff, the Bishop, or even someone higher. However, instead of granting you favor, your deeds have made you an embarrassment or a liability. For the moment, your former employer’s concern is to keep you quiet. In the long term, it’s to get rid of you.

Escaped Target

Bonus: 2pt.
You had targeted a mortal for the Embrace, but someone else got there first. You cannot stand the humiliation of being cheated of your prize, and fly into a rage (+2 difficulty to avoid frenzy) whenever you see the one who got away. This hatred may lead you into other irrational behaviors, like Embracing enemies of the neonate, creating unauthorized childer, or even trying to kill your rival. Furthermore, your petty and irrational behavior is well-known and quite noticeable, and as a result you are at + 1 difficulty on all Charisma rolls until the situation is resolved.

Expiration Date

Bonus: 2pt.
Your personal motto is simple: I do what I want. This has, as might be expected, caused you trouble more than once. You are wanted in several domains for various minor crimes, such as exsanguinating the Seneschal’s favorite ghoul. You haven’t been bloodhunted just yet, but the writing is on the wall. You’ve just about run out of time and no one wants you to take them with you when everything turns sideways. One more mistake and you sign your Final Death warrant. All social-based rolls to acquire help are at +2 difficulty, except those involving Intimidation.

Failure

Bonus: 2pt.
You once held a title in the city, but failed catastrophically in your duties. Now you are branded incompetent, excluded from circles of power and responsibility, and generally ostracized by those on their way up. Your exclusion may make you a target for recruitment by the Sect’s enemies (or so the whispers run, making you even more distrusted). Conversely, the consequences of your error might come back to haunt you.

Masquerade Breaker

Bonus: 2pt.
In your first nights as a vampire, you accidentally broke the Masquerade — and were spotted doing so. Someone else covered for your mistake, but holds the favor over you. Now you exist in fear that your error will be revealed. In the meantime, your “savior” takes pitiless advantage of you. This Flaw can only be taken by vampires in Sects or Clans that respect the Masquerade.

Old Flame

Bonus: 2pt.
Someone you once cared deeply for is now with the enemy. He still attempts to play on your sympathies “for old times’ sake” while working against you. Unless you succeed on a contested Manipulation + Expression roll against your former friend, you cannot act against him unless the situation becomes life-threatening.

Rival Sires

Bonus: 2pt.
The flip side of Escaped Target, two vampires wanted to gift you with the Embrace. One succeeded, one failed — and she’s not happy about that failure. You, your actual sire, or both of you have become the target of the failed suitor’s ire. Regardless, your persecutor is at +2 difficulty to refrain from frenzy in your presence. In addition, she may well be working actively to discredit or destroy you.

Uppity

Bonus: 2pt.
You are proud of your new status in the Sect — so proud that you’ve shot your mouth off to other Kindred and made some enemies. Wiser vampires laugh at you and chalk your rudeness up to youth, but others find you arrogant and insulting. These enemies will take action to embarrass or harm you. Furthermore, you are at +2 difficulty on all Social rolls against any vampires you have alienated through your yammering — and you may not know who they are.

At Storyteller discretion, you may also be required to make a Willpower roll (difficulty 6) to keep your mouth shut any time the opportunity presents itself for you to brag about your pack, your Clan, or your status.

Disgrace to the Blood

Bonus: 3pt.
Your sire regards the fact that he Embraced you to be a titanic mistake, and has let everyone know it. You are mocked at gatherings, taunted by your peers, and actively despised by the one who should be giving you guidance. Any request or petition you make is likely to be looked down upon by friends of your sire, and your achievements are likely to be discounted.

Former Prince

Bonus: 3pt.
Once, you held near-absolute power in a city, but those nights are gone now. Perhaps you stepped down,perhaps you were deposed, or perhaps your city fell to the Sabbat; it matters little in your reduced state. What does matter is that the Prince in the city where you now dwell is aware of your prior employment, and has concerns that you might be trying to make a comeback. The machinery of the Camarilla in the city where you now make your home is subtly stacked against you, and if the Prince sees an opportunity to get rid of you he just might take it. This Flaw can only be taken by Camarilla vampires.

Hunted Like a Dog

Bonus: 3pt.
Another Sect or group of vampires has decided that you’re a target for extermination, and pursues you relentlessly. On the bright side, the enemies of your enemy may well wish to help you out, potentially garnering you allies.

Narc

Bonus: 3pt.
You are known to be a snitch, an informer firmly planted in the pocket of the vampires in charge. Those on whom you might yet inform loathe you as a result, feeding you misinformation when they can in an attempt to discredit you. Given the opportunity, they might do you mischief. Regardless, your reputation as a weasel precedes you, putting you at +1 difficulty on all Social rolls against those who don’t agree with your politics.

Sleeping With the Enemy

Bonus: 3pt.
You have some sort of intimate connection with a member of an opposing Sect or inimical Clan. You may have a lover, a childe, a friend, or a contact working the other side of the fence, but regardless of politics you retain a friendly (or more than friendly) relationship with your putative foe. Your close ties to someone on the other side would be regarded as treason by your superiors within the Sect, and if you are discovered, the penalty will surely be death.

Clan Enmity

Bonus: 4pt.
One Clan in particular wants you dead. You have offended the entire Clan, from elders to neonates, and as a result every member of that bloodline wants your head on a plate. The effects of the Flaw may manifest as anything from very public snubs and insults to actual attempts on your unlife. You are also at +2 difficulty on all Social rolls relating to members of the Clan in question.

Hunted

Bonus: 4pt.
You are pursued by a fanatical witch-hunter who believes (perhaps correctly) that you are a danger to humanity. All those with whom you associate, be they mortal or Kindred, may be hunted as well.

Loathsome Regnant

Bonus: 4pt.
Not only are you blood bound, but you are also in thrall to a vampire who mistreats you hideously. Perhaps you are publicly abused or humiliated; perhaps your master forces you to commit unspeakable acts for him. In any case, existence under the bond is a neverending nightmare, with your regnant serving to conduct the symphony of malice. Sabbat vampires cannot take this Flaw.

Oathbreaker

Bonus: 4pt.
Once you swore fealty to a lord or organization, or made a binding contract. You’ve broken that promise and everyone knows about it. Now it’s near impossible to earn the trust of others. The difficulty of Social rolls to convince someone of your trustworthiness is increased by three, and even members of your coterie may have reservations about you.

Trophy Arrogance

Bonus: 4pt.
The character has begun to wear out his welcome when it comes to making demands on the Trophy Clan. While the Clan has promised him any number of rewards, both monetary and supernatural, the new Alastor has been abusing the Trophy’s Clan hospitality and is taking advantage of them. Making demands of local Kindred resources, throwing the fallen Anathema back in the Clan’s face, or being overly arrogant about the fact that the Clan owes the character are just some of the ways an Alastor can demonstrate this Flaw.

Note: This Flaw is only available to Alastor characters who have killed an Anathema. It is not available to those named Alastors by Justicars and Inner Circle.

Outspoken Heretic

Bonus: 4pt.
You hold a belief considered to be heretical by a major religious power, such as the Catholic Church. Unlike others who practice their heresies in secret, you are open about your beliefs. You must constantly face false accusations, harassment from others who fancy themselves true believers, and the denial of hospitality from steadfastly faithful stranger, or those who fear the religious authority. At the Storyteller’s discretion, this can impose a difficulty increase of up to 3 to applicable Social rolls.

Overextended

Bonus: 4pt.
You’ve got your fingers in too many pies, and people are starting to notice. You have too many ghouls, too many retainers, or too much influence, which means that a lot of people have a vested interest in trimming back your operations. These enemies take every opportunity to reduce your power and influence, and if that means lying, cheating, or killing, so be it. Furthermore, your enemies block every attempt you make to move into new areas of control. You’re boxed in, and the box is getting smaller.

Probationary Sect Member

Bonus: 4pt.
You are a defector. You turned traitor to the Camarilla, Sabbat, or other Sect, and you still have much to prove before you are accepted by the Kindred you have defected to. Other vampires treat you with distrust and even hostility, and your reputation might even sully those whom you regularly associate with.

Blood Hunted

Bonus: 4 or 6pt.
You have been made the target of a blood hunt, and for you to return to your home city is death. For four points, this Flaw means that only your home city is offlimits to you. For six, it means that the entire Camarilla is howling for your vitae. This Flaw can only be taken by Camarilla vampires.

Black Sheep

Bonus: 5pt.
You belong to a prestigious lineage that is considered to be paragon of another sect, or at least it did before you joined the Anarch Movement. You have embarrassed your sire, grandsire, and perhaps even farther back up the line; now the time has come to pay. Your erstwhile broodmates want to bring you back into the fold, if only to clean the stain from your reputation, and are unwilling to recognize your independence. Your sire and grandsire spare no effort to make things uncomfortable for you and any Anarchs who shelter you. This flaw combines the effects of Sire’s Resentment and Hunted Like a Dog, so those flaws may not be taken in conjunction with Black Sheep.

In addition, many members of the Anarch Movement actively distrust you solely based on your lineage, believing that you are a double-agent. All social rolls involving your fellow Anarchs incur a +2 difficulty.

Laughingstock

Bonus: 5pt.
Somehow you’ve drawn the scorn of the local Harpies, who make you their favorite target. You are at a +2 difficulty on all Social rolls in Elysium and a +1 anywhere else in the city. In addition, you are at +2 difficulty to use Intimidation or any Dominate powers on anyone who has heard the stories mocking you. This Flaw can only be taken by Camarilla vampires.

Nameless

Bonus: 5pt.
You do not exist. Certainly, you still walk the earth and your friends and kin can still see and touch you, but all records of your existence have been destroyed. Not even your vampiric progeny can lay claim to your name. As far as anyone can prove, you never were. If you take this Flaw, you may not take any Social Merits that grant benefits based on reputation. At Storyteller’s discretion, you may also be barred from taking Backgrounds that require a social presence. Who or what have you made so angry that they have erased your existence from the face of this earth?

Red List

Bonus: 7pt.
You are either being considered for or are already on the dreaded Red List, the registry of those vampires the Camarilla most wants extinguished. Any Camarilla vampire will either attack you on sight or, more likely, call in for a great deal of help.

Supernatural

Cast No Reflection

Bonus: 1pt.
You actually cast no reflection, just like the vampires of legend. This can have a detrimental effect when trying to pass as a human. Vampires of Clan Lasombra automatically have this Flaw (and you may be mistaken for one of them if you possess this).

Cold Breeze

Bonus: 1pt.
A chill wind follows you everywhere you go. While it may make for dramatic entrances, this effect also discomfits mortals (+1 difficulty on all appropriate Social rolls) and marks you as obviously supernatural. Cold winds sweeping through executive offices or crowded nightclubs can raise all sorts of questions.

Initiate of a Road

Bonus: 1pt.
Your life on the road to enlightenment has just begun. Though you fully grasp the tenets and precepts of your chosen Road, you have not yet put them to the test. This may be because you were recently Embraced or because you previously abandoned a former Road (in which case you may also consider taking the Apostate Flaw). With this comes a +1 difficulty in resisting frenzy and Rötschreck, and you lack an aura tied to your Road. However, you have an easier time changing Roads, if you wish to do so.

Repulsed by Garlic

Bonus: 1pt.
You cannot abide garlic, and the smallest whiff of its scent will drive you from a room unless you make a successful Willpower roll (difficulty based on the strength of the odor).

Touch of Frost

Bonus: 1pt.
Plants wither as you approach and die at your touch. Your touch leeches heat from living beings, as though you were made of ice.

Cursed

Bonus: 1-5pt.
You are the recipient of a supernatural curse. The strength and pervasiveness of the curse depend upon how many points you wish to incur. Examples follow:

• If you pass on a secret you were entrusted with, your betrayal will come back to harm you in some way. (1 pt.)
• You stutter uncontrollably when you try to describe what you have seen or heard. (2 pts.)
• Tools break or malfunction when you try to use them. (3 pts.)
• You are doomed to make enemies of those whom you most love or admire. (4 pts.)
• Every one of your accomplishments or triumphs will eventually become soiled or fail in some way. (5 pts.)

Demon Hounded

Bonus: 1-5pt.
A demon has taken a shine to you. It comes at odd and inconvenient hours and offers you bribes of wealth and power. Some days, it asks for favors; on others, it offers them. What black schemes does hell have in mind for you that one of its servants would bother you so? What fell powers have you toyed with that you should not? At 1 point, the demon is little more than an imp, asking for minor favors or stealing small objects. At 3 points, the demon is your physical or magical equal, or is a smaller threat that is willing to also drag your close friends into this affair. At 5 points, the demon is significantly powerful, able to threaten your coterie, or a lesser demon willing to torment your friends, family, and acquaintances.

Unlucky

Bonus: 1-5pt.
You are spectacularly unfortunate. Disaster follows in your wake. You are magnetically attracted to misfortune. At 1 point, it rains whenever you forget your coat. At 3 points, it’s rare for you to recover from any failure gracefully. At 5 points, nearly everything you attempt ends catastrophically. A number of times per day equal to the point you have in this Flaw, the Storyteller may force you to reroll a successful roll and take the second result. Lucky and Unlucky are not mutually exclusive, but for simplicity’s sake, the same roll cannot be modified by both at once. That is, if a Lucky reroll is used, the Storyteller cannot force you to reroll the reroll.

Beacon of the Unholy

Bonus: 2pt.
You radiate palpable evil. Clergy and devout mortals know instinctively that there is something horribly wrong with you, and react accordingly.

Deathsight

Bonus: 2pt.
Everything appears rotted and decayed to you. The world appears to you as a corpse; mortals look diseased or skeletal, buildings seem decrepit, and your fellow Kindred seem to be walking, moldering cadavers. You are at -2 difficulty to resist all rolls based on Appearance, but by the same token you are at +2 difficulty on all Perception-based rolls. In addition, you find social interaction difficult and are at +1 difficulty on all Social-based rolls.

Eerie Presence

Bonus: 2pt.
Mortals have an unconscious awareness of your undead nature, which makes then anxious and ill at ease in your presence. Because of this, difficulties of all rolls relating to social interaction with mortals are increased by two.

Kiss of Death

Bonus: 2pt.
Should you drain a mortal vessel of all blood minutes after their heart stops beating, the corpse rises as a zombie (using the statistics for zombies on Necromancy). These zombies are free-willed, hostile toward you, and cannot be directed without some sorcerous or necromantic means to command them.

Lord of the Flies

Bonus: 2pt.
Buzzing harbingers of decay swirl around you everywhere. Their constant presence makes it difficult for you to interact socially (+1 difficulty when appropriate) and nearly impossible to sneak up on someone or hide effectively. The buzzing of the flies inevitably gives you away — all Stealth rolls are at +2 difficulty.

Can’t Cross Running Water

Bonus: 3pt.
You believe in the old folklore, and cannot cross running water unless you are at least 50 feet (15 meters) above it. Running water is considered to be any body of water at least two feet (half a meter) wide in any direction and not completely stagnant.

Cloaked in Shadow

Bonus: 3pt.
Shadows cling to you constantly. These are not the ordinary shadows cast simply by existing; the darkness around you is thick and heavy, making it impossible for you to pass as anything other than something supernatural. In addition to this complication, the difficulty for Social rolls with other vampires (especially the Lasombra) increases by one.

Devil’s Mark

Bonus: 3pt.
Whether product of your Embrace or gained through exposure to infernal or other unholy power, you’ve been branded with the “Devil’s Mark,” an anatomical aberration that manifests the taint of the demonic. Possible deformities include, but are not limited to: bestial or inhuman eyes, hooves, horns, unnaturally colored or scaly skin, a birthmark in the form of a sigil, parasitic infestation, claws, misshapen teeth. or ineffectual (perhaps additional) limbs. You may never remove or “improve” these disfigurements, although magic or Disciplines can hide them from plain sight. A Devil’s Mark confers the following mechanical effects: Lower the maximum rating in one Attribute by one (if the maximum rating is 5, it becomes 4), while the cost to raise said Attribute increases by one (1 + the current rating x 4). If the mark becomes visible or is known to a mortal, it confers a -1 difficulty on Intimidation rolls when dealing with her, but in turn increases the difficulties for all other Social die rolls by one. Players should work with a Storyteller to determine an appropriate Devil’s Mark, and the Physical Attribute best suited to their mark.

Haunted

Bonus: 3pt.
You are haunted by an angry and tormented spirit, most likely one of your first victims. This spirit actively attempts to hinder you, especially when feeding, and does its utmost to vent its anguish upon you and anyone in your presence. The Storyteller determines the exact nature of the spirit, its powers, and whether or not it can eventually be laid to rest.

Lord of the Night

Bonus: 3pt.
In your presence lights dim, tiny flames extinguish, and shadows cling to you or languidly move about with a surreal unlife, making it impossible to pass as anything other than inhuman. The particular shadow you cast is a malicious entity with a will of its own. It lashes out at friends and enemies alike, tearing at the scenery, and snarling at passers-by. These effects can be suppressed for a scene by spending a point of Willpower.

Repelled by Crosses

Bonus: 3pt.
You are repelled by the sight of ordinary crosses, believing them to be symbols of holy might. When confronted by a cross, you must make a Willpower roll (difficulty 9) or flee from the symbol for the duration of the scene. If you botch the roll, not only must you attempt to flee, but the touch of the cross can cause aggravated damage (one health level of damage per turn that the cross touches your skin). This damage cannot be soaked, even if the vampire possesses Fortitude.

Unholy Stain

Bonus: 3-pt.
Your soul is stained with sacrilege. Some are born or Embraced this way; more earn the stain through wicked oaths and foul deeds. When interacting with any mortal, your Social difficulties increase by one, as people feel unnaturally ill at ease in your presence. Additionally, people of faith feel compelled to hostility when in your proximity. Their initial stance towards you is always aggressive, and it takes little to provoke them to violence. Mortals with True Faith will recognize you on sight, and often attack.

Grip of the Damned

Bonus: 4pt.
There is no ecstasy in your Embrace — only terror and pain. Mortals upon whom you feed struggle and shriek while you attempt to feed, requiring you to grapple with them for as long as you wish to take their blood. For vampires with high Humanity, this experience may require a Humanity roll, at the discretion of the Storyteller. Giovanni cannot take this Flaw.

Dark Fate

Bonus: 5pt.
You are doomed to experience Final Death or, worse, suffer eternal agony. No matter what you do, you cannot avoid this terrible fate. At some point during the chronicle, your Dark Fate will come upon you. Even more ghastly is the fact that you occasionally have visions of this fate, and the malaise these images inspire requires an expenditure of a temporary Willpower point to avoid, or else you lose a die from all of your actions for the remainder of the night. It is up to the Storyteller to determine the exact nature of this fate, and when it will occur. This is a difficult Flaw to roleplay; ironically, though it may seem as though it removes all free will, the knowledge of one’s death can be quite liberating.

Light-Sensitive

Bonus: 5pt.
You are even more sensitive to sunlight than other vampires are. Sunlight causes double normal damage, and the light of the moon can cause lethal damage in a manner similar to the sun, though it must shine directly upon you. Even bright lights hurt your eyes, requiring the use of sunglasses. Followers of Set and related bloodlines cannot take this Flaw, as they already have a worse version of it.

Harbinger of the Abyss

Bonus: 5pt.
You have become the void: the endless black of night, an empty pool of darkness. Where you pass, shadows leap to join you and flames gutter and perish. When you are in the presence of mundane fire, you must make a reflexive Obtenebration roll against the soak difficulty of any nearby flame. A success extinguishes the fire instantly, casting the area into darkness. This Flaw also includes the effects of Touch of Frost and Eerie Presence and is therefore mutually exclusive with them. However, the clinging darkness around you provides one benefit (besides being an unusual way to extinguish unwanted fires): reduce the difficulty of all Intimidation rolls by two, to a minimum of 4. You must have at least one dot of Obtenebration to purchase this Flaw.

Vassal of the Clan

Bonus: 6pt.
Through natural predisposition or a curse, you bear a permanent one-point blood bond to those one Generation lower, a two-point blood bond with those two Generations lower, and a three-point blood bond to those three or more Generations lower than you within your own Clan. These blood bonds override any other blood bonds you may earn during play. This can be a great risk for Hand members, as the blood forces allegiances to potentially risky vampires, or worse, to heretical ideologies.

Methuselah’s Thirst

Bonus: 7pt.
Whether from advanced age, your addiction to Diablerie, or the degradation of your Humanity, you are no longer capable of drinking mortal blood to sustain yourself and must feed upon the vitae of other vampires to survive. You may attempt to drink the blood of mortals, but it will not nourish you. If you do not feed on other vampires — you will go into torpor.

The Scourge

Bonus: 7pt.
The Scourge is a vampire-specific plague that infects the Blood. This disease is a mutated strain of leprosy crossed with the bubonic plague which directly attacks the vampire’s vitae. Once infected, the victim must spend more blood each time they expend vitae. The cost for any vitae expenditure increases by one for each night the victim suffers from The Scourge. In some cases, the victim also suffers from a disfiguring malady that impacts their appearance but does not threaten their life.

While The Scourge is curable on a case-by-case basis, the disease itself cannot be exterminated. In extremely rare cases, an afflicted vampire becomes a carrier of the disease and immune to its effects. The carrier then spreads The Scourge to other vampires.

Currently, there is only one known carrier of the disease.

Clan Specific

Assamites

Outcast

Bonus: 2pt.
Your have rejected the ethos of the caste into which you were Embraced. Perhaps you are one of the few viziers or sorcerers to support the Web of Knives or pursue the Path of Blood. Perhaps you are a warrior who has little stomach for combat, preferring instead to be a diplomat or a student of the occult. Perhaps you made some kind of public spectacle that revealed your disdain for your fellow caste members. Your sire now rejects you, as do the other members of your caste. The difficulty of all Social rolls against members of your caste is at +2.

Broken Antitribu

Bonus: 3pt.
You are one of those most pitiful things — an Assamite antitribu who still labors under the Tremere Curse. You have pledged yourself to the Sabbat, but you cannot perform diablerie and can only partake of Kindred vitae already transubstantiated through the Vaulderie. As a result, the difficulty of all Social rolls against other Sabbat members is at +2.

Multiple Curses

Bonus: 3pt.
In addition to the normal curse imposed upon you by your caste or sect, you suffer one additional one associated with the Assamite Clan. Most likely, you are a rare vizier or sorcerer within the Sabbat who suffers the Baali Curse in addition to your normal caste-imposed curse, but at the Storyteller’s discretion, other combinations may be possible.

Brujah

Obvious Predator

Bonus: 2pt.
Your innate Brujah rage always percolates below the surface no matter how hard you try to project an image of calm. Mortals find you intrinsically menacing, and instinctively fear you for the violence you promise to unleash.

System: The difficulty of all Social rolls made against mortals other than Intimidation rolls increases by 2.

Followers of Set

Scales

Bonus: 1-3pt.
Set blessed you upon your Embrace, and you bear his mark. A portion of your skin is covered in scales. As a one-point Flaw, a small, easily hidden area of skin is covered. As a two-point Flaw, a whole limb is covered, while having a scaled, lipless face is a three-point Flaw. Kine are frightened and disturbed by the obviously unnatural scales, and Kindred have their own prejudices against the Setites. All social rolls receive a +2 difficulty when the scales are visible. This penalty does not apply to social interactions with other Setites.

Venomous Bite

Bonus: 2pt.
You have developed venom glands in the roof of your mouth. The venom is a virulent neurotoxin, fatal to mortals, although Kindred and other supernatural creatures are unaffected by it. You, of course, are immune. The problem is you have no control over your poison glands. When you bite, you always inject this venom, usually killing your human victims. You must learn to feed in other ways, perhaps drawing the blood you need with a syringe or razor, if you do not wish to kill every time you feed.

Forked Tongue

Bonus: 2pt.
Your tongue is forked, flickering, and inhumanly reptilian. Upholding the Masquerade becomes difficult for you. Note that this tongue does not inflict aggravated damage, nor draw blood.

Heartless

Bonus: 4pt.
You have lost your heart. Either you removed it via The Heart of Darkness, or an elder did it to you, but either way you no longer have easy access to it. The heart might be in the possession of a foe, or simply missing. If it turns out that a Cainite possesses the heart (say a Setite elder, or your sire) you must obey their every command. If it’s merely missing, the anxiety and obsession to find it interferes with your nightly existence, and may increase the difficulty of Willpower rolls by +1 at Storyteller discretion.

Aura of the Typhon

Bonus: 5pt.
Something slithers beneath your skin, coiled in your very essence — something that causes the Lupines to stalk you for some dread purpose you do not understand. Their howls follow in your wake. You catch glimpses of blurred motion and the gleam of eyes and teeth in the dark. They get closer every night. What do they want from you?

Gangrel

Member of the Pack

Bonus: 2pt.
You can only summon, speak to, and command a specific type of animal — ravens, rats, and so forth — with Animalism. Your Storyteller is the best adjudicator of what types of animal are appropriate for this Flaw, but the choice should be fairly limiting. Other animals do not respond to your uses of Animalism at all.

Rat in a Cage

Bonus: 2pt.
Anytime you are penned in or physically restrained (such as by a cage, or with handcuffs), you suffer acute anxiety. The difficulties of any rolls made under such circumstances are increased by two.

Giovanni

Inbred

Bonus: 1-5pt.
Inbreeding, a common occurrence among the incestuous Giovanni Clan, can take many forms. The Inbred Flaw covers all manner of physical, mental, and emotional defects. A one-point Inbreeding is something simple and unobtrusive, such as eyes too close together or an underbite (+1 difficulty on Appearance rolls). A three-point Inbreeding is more severe: a congenital health condition (for mortals) or a crippling physical deformity (+2 difficulty on appropriate Strength, Dexterity, or Stamina rolls).

Five-point Inbreedings are grossly disabling or emotionally crippling — everything from uselessly atrophied legs to a permanent Derangement — decided on mutually by the player and Storyteller. Inbred conditions may or may not be immediately discernible, though their point cost should be relative to their magnitude, as decided by the Storyteller.

Shadow Walker

Bonus: 6pt.
The Giovanni Clan is by its nature inexorably tied to the realm beyond the sudario. Giovanni suffering from this Flaw are so tied to the Shadowlands that even in the lands of the living they must interact with the world of the dead on a nightly basis. To shadow walkers, objects in the Underworld are as real as anything found in the physical world. Such vampires find that the ghosts of walls may impeded their flight, ghostly objects may strike them, and wraiths’ powers work as if the Kindred were on the far side of the Shroud. This Flaw is similar to the Ash Path power Dead Hand, except that Shadow Walker is always on and it in no way allows the character possessing it to perceive beyond the Shroud.

The Storyteller may determine that certain Shadowlands topography interferes with you. Unless you have some ability to do so, you can’t see into the Shadowlands, so you have to be careful in feeling your way about — essentially, a blind man subject to the Underworld landscape. At the Storyteller’s discretion, immaterial walls or environmental effects may restrict you.

Lasombra

Uncontrollable Night Sight

Bonus: 2pt.
Your night vision is good, but you can’t turn it off. While you can see easily into the deepest shadows, any light is almost blinding to you. You suffer penalties the brighter the area you are in is lit, inversely proportional to the standard penalties for darkness. Even just standing in a well-lit room is uncomfortable to you.

Insubordinate

Bonus: 3pt.
You like to be in charge so much you have a hard time following anyone else’s orders. When given a plan or told to do something, you tend to do the opposite on principle. Whenever you are ordered to do something, you must make a Willpower roll with a difficulty depending on the importance of the superior and the danger of the task (difficulty 7 is typical for someone directly above the vampire assigning them a moderately dangerous task). If you fail, you will do anything except what you’ve been told to do.

Unproven

Bonus: 3pt.
Somehow, you have failed to prove yourself worthy of the name Lasombra. Maybe your sire did not test you well enough, or an opportunity to prove yourself has not come up. Whatever the reason, you are not truly considered part of the Clan. All social dealings with other Lasombra suffer a -3 dice penalty. You may also not be chosen to sit in judgment in the Courts of Blood.

Malkavians

Paper Trail

Bonus: 2pt.
You’ve spent some time in state institutions like prisons or asylums, likely before your Embrace. Most people have some sort of information that relays date of birth and other bits of fact. This information is hard to eliminate, and may endanger the Masquerade. Enemies with the right influence may be able to track down the information and use it against you. It may lead to vulnerable targets or clue hunters to where your haven is located.

Stigmata

Bonus: 2 or 4pt.
Oracles are often marked as messengers of the gods. Your markings come in the forms of phantom wounds that seep blood. The bleeding is slight but incessant, costing you an extra blood point every day just before you wake at dusk.

The 2-point version of this Flaw means wounds that can be easily hidden from prying eyes, such as on the hands or the side. You gain a +1 difficulty to all Social rolls when dealing with someone aware of your condition.

The 4-point version can’t be easily hidden, like bleeding eyes. The Social penalty increases to +2, and one of your Attributes also gains a +1 difficulty to all rolls because of the constant seeping blood.

Infectious

Bonus: 3pt.
Madness flows within your blood, but your bite carries a taint as well. Mortals take a temporary derangement for every three points of blood you take from them. The derangements stay until the mortal restores the lost blood.

Overstimulated

Bonus: 3pt.
Malkavians notice things that many others do not. That means keeping their eyes and ears open far longer than anyone else does. That makes you easily distracted when trying to focus. Take a +2 penalty to all rolls involving Perception.

Dead Inside

Bonus: 4pt.
You feel nothing but pain and numbness. While others find ways to make their lives worth living, you sometimes don’t get that thrill. Once per session, the Storyteller may cancel any gain of Willpower points.

Nosferatu

Stench

Bonus: 1pt.
Most Nosferatu pick up a certain odor, but you stink so bad even your Clan-mates find you hard to be close to. Your presence is preceded by your stench, removing two die from all Stealth rolls.

Dangerous Secret

Bonus: 1-5pt.
You have come to know something you really wish you hadn’t discovered. Worse yet, the people you have the dirt on know that you know. It might be that you have discovered the Prince’s haven, or that there are infernalists hiding in the diocese. Whatever it is, you are not sure whom you can tell, and if you do, you will only make the subjects of the secret more enthusiastic about getting rid of you. You may even be implicated in the secret and risk going down with them. The more potent the Flaw, the more powerful the people in question are, and the more they want it silenced.

Anosmia

Bonus: 2pt.
Your life in the sewer has removed your sense of smell and taste. This means you are unperturbed by even the worst stench or most disgusting flavor. However, it also means you cannot ever succeed at any Perception rolls that rely of taste or smell. It also does not make you immune in any way to gas attacks or poisons; you just won’t be able to tell they are there.

Parasitic Infestation

Bonus: 2pt.
Living in the dark has made you a home to all manner of creepy crawlies and bloodsuckers. Your skin is crawling with ticks, lice, and leeches of all descriptions. They constantly bite and burrow, and having fed on your vitae, they have become very hard to kill. Not only can you not command them, you have tried everything to get rid of them and still they persist. Whatever the reason, they find you so succulent they reduce your blood pool by the result of one die divided by 3 (round down) each time you rise. The constant itch also keeps you on edge, increasing the difficulty of any Self-Control or Instinct rolls by 1.

Bestial

Bonus: 3pt.
You are closer to animals than humans, and it shows. In addition to the Nosferatu Clan weakness, you have an additional weakness: whenever you frenzy, you gain an animal feature, similar to the Gangrel Clan weakness .

With Storyteller permission, permanently acquired animal features may be justification to acquire certain Merits after character creation, such as Lizard Limbs or Monstrous Maw. If so, the Storyteller can simply award them, or require an experience point expenditure (such as two times the Merit point value). Similar Flaws can also be taken, but cannot grant additiona freebie or experience points.

Enemy Brood

Bonus: 3pt.
You have made an enemy of another group of Nosferatu. Unlike your usual enemies, they know the places you like to go and aren’t too squeamish about following you there. They keep you on the move, hunting you from sanctuary to sanctuary. The sewers themselves might not even be safe for you anymore. If you move to a new city, they use their contacts to pass on the word to their allies to keep hounding you. Sooner or later, you are going to have to take them down to rid yourself of them.

Putrescent

Bonus: 4pt.
The supernatural process that usually keeps a vampire’s form from rotting after death has failed to work on you. Your body has become putrescent and fragile as it gradually decays. All soak rolls you make have their dice pool reduced by 1. You may even lose body parts if you suffer a solid enough blow. Should this happen, make a Stamina roll (difficulty 6) and lose a part of your body (Storyteller’s choice) if you fail. Should you botch, you also receive a level of aggravated damage. These missing parts may regrow, but your body continues to rot.

Contagious

Bonus: 5pt.
Your body is still dying on the inside, your rotting entrails providing nutrition for noxious bacteria, spores, and even fungi. Mortals that touch you or on whom you feed must make a Stamina roll (difficulty 9) not to fall ill. The illness puts them in bed with fever and sickness, and each week they may attempt the Stamina roll again. The Storyteller might reduce the difficulty if the target is receiving proper medical attention. On a success they recover, but if they fail, they remain feverish. At the end of each month the victim remains ill, they lose a point of Stamina; if they are reduced to zero Stamina they die. If the Nosferatu knows of their contagion and infects someone maliciously, the Storyteller might call for a Humanity (or appropriate Path of Enlightenment) degeneration roll if they die. Supernatural creatures generally have the ability to heal or cure such sickness in themselves, and vampires are immune to these germs of the dead.

Incoherent

Bonus: 5pt.
Human speech is impossible for you. It might be that your mouth is too misshapen after the Embrace, or that years of living in the sewers have made you forget how to communicate. While you can understand what is being said to you, you cannot respond. Telepathy works on you as normal, and you have no problem communicating with animals, but human speech is barred to you.

Ravnos

Chandala

Bonus: 1pt.
Being a member of the the Chandala jati is a mixed bag. You are responsible for the disposal of corpses, as well as many other foul tasks, but at the same time, you are often ignored. Your Social rolls against other Ravnos are made at a +2 difficulty.

You do not have to take this Flaw to be a member of the Chandala jati, but only members of the Chandala jati may have this Flaw.

Flawed Reality

Bonus: 2pt.
Your illusions always contain a notable flaw, and as such, are easier to disbelieve. The difficulties of all rolls to disbelieve your illusions are reduced by two.

Oathbreaker

Bonus: 2pt.
Making an oath ties one person’s svadharma to another, linking the two spirits until the oath can be fulfilled. With this in mind, a Ravnos never breaks her word once given in good faith, and so long as it was done with proper ceremony. If the Ravnos spits into her palm and shakes on her word, then the oath cannot be broken without negatively impacting the vampire’s svadharma (or so Ravnos superstition dictates).

The oathbreaker will lose her way, falling into vice and worthlessness, until the broken oath can be redeemed. Anyone who looks at your aura can see a sickly red slash indicating the broken oath. You may not spend Willpower to ignore your Ravnos vice, and you do not gain Willpower from fulfilling your Nature.

Lost Svadharma

Bonus: 3pt.
You once knew your svadharma, but when the time came to fulfill it, you failed. Now that destiny has passed you by, and there may never be another chance to make it right. Other Ravnos know the tale, and hold your failure against you. You are scorned, and your confidence has been thrown into doubt. Your total Willpower score is permanently reduced by one and you may not spend Willpower when performing actions where other Ravnos are directly involved.

Toreador

Tortured Artist

Bonus: 1pt.
Nothing is ever good enough for your work. No matter how much praise is lavished upon you, you can only see the flaws and mistakes. This leads to long periods of ennui, which makes your artistic work irregular at best. Further, you throw yourself into business arrangements and social situations with intensity, which often leads to heartbreak, which leads to the pain and passion that fuels your next work. You are at +1 difficulty on Social rolls in which you are being praised, complimented, or treated with respect.

Private Life

Bonus: 3pt.
You have a completely separate life that no other Kindred know about. It may be your mortal family that you have turned into ghouls, or a YouTube channel that you use to talk in metaphor about your frustrations with Kindred society. If discovered, this could risk other vampires accusing you of breaching the Masquerade (if Camarilla), consorting with humanity instead of being a superior vampire (if Sabbat), or just overall paranoia and suspicion on why you’re keeping such deep secrets.

Tremere

Arcane Curse

Bonus: 1-5pt.
Because of either your studies or someone else’s, you suffer from a magical curse. It might be an aversion or allergy, or even a strange magical effect. The level of the flaw depends on how debilitating the curse is. Curing the affliction may be impossible, or require some sort of quest or advanced research.

Flaw Value	Example Curse
1 point	A minor oddity, such as an animal feature or strange eye color.
2 points	A noticeable problem, such as your magic having a strange taint or pattern that makes it instantly recognizable, or that plants wither in your presence.
3 points	Something problematic, such as people sickening in your presence or animals attacking you.
4 points	Concerning handicap, such as developing another Clan’s weakness.
5 points	Potentially deadly, such as moonlight being as dangerous to you as sunlight.

Cloistered

Bonus: 2pt.
You have spent almost all of your undead existence in the halls of the chantry, making Kindred society rather new and confusing for you. You suffer a -2 dice penalty to any social interactions with those outside the Tremere.

Permanent Third Eye

Bonus: 2 or 4pt.
While most sealed third eyes are visible as a slight scar, yours remains permanently open on your forehead. For 2 points, the eye is merely open, and may be closed for a scene on a successful Willpower roll (difficulty 6). For 4 points, the eye sheds light, increasing all Stealth difficulties by 2.

Betrayer’s Mark

Bonus: 3pt.
Even though you are loyal to House and Clan Tremere, for some reason you are branded with the mark of the antitribu. It might be that you have returned to the Clan after leaving the Sabbat or that you unwittingly or as part of an undercover operation took part in the Vaulderie. Whatever the reason, the mark makes other Tremere wary of you. You will have to go that extra mile to prove yourself, and few among the Clan will trust you with positions of power and responsibility.

Bound to the Clan

Bonus: 3pt.
You have done more than just drink from the blood of the elders. Whether as punishment or by choice, you have become fully blood bound to Clan Tremere. You cannot act against the Clan, and find everything you do works in the service of the Tremere. You might not like it, but you can’t help yourself doing it. Of course, now you are bound to the Clan, you cannot be bound to another individual. Many older Tremere have this Flaw, as it has been common in the past to completely blood bind new Tremere.

Mage Blood

Bonus: 5pt.
Your blood is so tied to magic that you find you are unable to use any Discipline apart from Thaumaturgy (and for Kindred who are not Tremere, it is still paid for at out-of-Clan rates). While no path or ritual is barred to you, you may not gain any dots in any other Discipline.

Thaumaturgically Inept

Bonus: 5pt.
Something about you refuses to respond to Thaumaturgy. Magic just doesn’t work for you. You cannot take any ability in the Thaumaturgy Discipline or any of its paths or rituals. For a Tremere this is doubly difficult, as skill in Thaumaturgy is often the key to position within the Clan.

While some willingly choose to ignore their thaumaturgical studies and serve in other ways, ineptitude is never excused. Only Tremere can take this Flaw.

Tzimisce

Unblinking

Bonus: 1pt.
Your eyes do not close. Ever. Perhaps you have left your humanity too far behind to upkeep such habits, or perhaps you fleshcrafted some form of transparent eye-scale or nictitating membrane. Your quirk probably makes astute observers uncomfortable, adding +1 to the difficulty of friendly social interactions with humans, Kindred on Humanity, and others with mortal sensibilities.

Ancestral Soil Dependence

Bonus: 2pt.
Your flesh yearns for a homeland you have never seen. The voice of Kupala punishes your day sleep if this yearning is not met. The soil from a place important to you as a mortal will not suffice; in addition, you require two handfuls of the tainted Eastern European soil of the ancestral Tzimisce homeland. This Trait mostly commonly manifests in the childer of koldun and the branch of the Clan thought to be descended from Yorak. It can even manifest in childer sired generations after their ancestors relocated. Characters Embraced in Eastern Europe can’t take this Flaw (they’re already dependent on the local soil).

Faceless

Bonus: 3pt.
You have escaped the tyranny of physical self-identity. You call no face your own. Every sunset, you awaken to a new visage, an amalgam pieced together from memory and dream. Your features, ethnicity, even gender become fluid things while you sleep. While this Flaw exemplifies the extreme ideals of Azi Dahaka (and should impress most Metamorphosists), it can cause complications for vampire concerned with maintaining recognition, reputation, or a mortal alias.

Every sundown, the player rolls one die and is subject to the results on the following table:

Roll	Result
1	No change.
2-3	Minor changes, somewhat recognizable.
4-8	Unrecognizable by even those closest to the character (such as her packmates or sire). Ethnicity and gender may change.
9-10	Total metamorphosis. Tentacles, bone spikes, or other inhuman features may appear.

Flaw affects some Backgrounds (V20, p. 110). Without a stable face, Alternate Identity and Fame cannot be maintained. Backgrounds like Allies, Contacts, Influence, and Status might be complicated by the lack of a solid identity as well. The vampire can use Malleable Visage and a mirror to reconstruct her true face from memory, but this requires at least three successes at difficulty 8 to make her recognizable, and five successes for a flawless copy.

The Mistaken Identity Flaw cannot be taken. Other Merits/Flaws may be affected, at the Storyteller’s discretion. Characters must have at least one dot of Vicissitude to take this Flaw.

Privacy Obsession

Bonus: 3pt.
Perhaps it is a trait carried in the blood. Perhaps your strict sire carved this lesson into your mind and flesh. Either way, you carry the Tzimisce respect for privacy to extremes. You must make a Willpower roll (difficulty 6) to enter another being’s dwelling without being invited, though you can go to fiendishly clever lengths to garner an unwitting invitation. When disturbed in your haven by an uninvited guest, you must make a Self-Control or Instincts roll (difficulty 7) to avoid frenzy.

Revenant Weakness

Bonus: 3pt.
You were once part of a revenant family. Following the Embrace, you suffered both your Clan’s weakness and your revenant family’s limitation. The Storyteller might let you manifest a weakness from a lost or destroyed revenant line. This could add mystery to your background and allow for a bit of genealogical detective work, certainly making you a curiosity to the Romanian Legacy Foundation.

Consumption

Bonus: 5pt.
There is something hungry inside of you. But what is it? Portions of the Antediluvian? Your Vicissitude gone horribly wrong? Whatever it is, it is active, acting like a cancer, devouring you from the inside out. Your very blood is wrought with corrosive, flesh-eating bacteria. At the beginning of each evening, you suffer one health level of lethal damage that cannot be soaked nor healed with blood. The only way to counteract the effect is by ingesting one-tenth of your body-weight in flesh to supplement your depleted carcass.

Whether you kill and devour the skin from humans or raid the biohazard containers of liposuction clinics for siphoned fat, you need your ration of human flesh in order to survive. If you try and ingest this macabre meal before damage is done, you’ll simply vomit it out like any other food — this does not impart the benefits of the Eat Food Merit.

Ventrue

Uncommon Vitae Preference

Bonus: 2pt.
Your preferred source for vitae is rarified even by the standards of your Clan, such as “only Korean War vets,” “only Federal Court Judges,” or “only virgins over the age of 40.” The difficulty of all hunting rolls for your character is increased by +2, to a maximum of 9.