Vampire:At a Glance

Identity
As it indicates, the name and age are your character's name and age, while the player spot indicates the player's name, which you can use for any nickname or identity that people are familiar with. People from the TOR branch might post their character's name here, or use whatever they desire.


 * Virtue and Vice are two of the most important aspects of this chronicle, given the setting. The list of each is as follows:


 * 1) Virtues: Charity, Faith, Fortitude, Hope, Justice, Prudence, Temperance.
 * 2) Vices: Envy, Gluttony, Greed, Lust, Pride, Sloth, Wrath.

A simple one or two word description to describe your character, and often pairs an adjective with a profession. Corrupt politician, altruistic doctor, and crazy bum are all examples of concepts. Note that your species is not an example of a concept, so evil vampire does not work.
 * Concept

Rising Darkness
 * Chronicle


 * Clan
 * 1) Daeva: Emotional, sensual and desirable.
 * 2) Gangrel: Primal, hardy and savage.
 * 3) Mekhet: Quick, discreet and wise.
 * 4) Nosferatu: Stealthy, strong and terrifying.
 * 5) Ventrue: Regal, commanding and aristocratic.

These will not be used by beginning vampires Groups of somewhat like-minded vampires and are as follows:
 * Covenant


 * 1) The Invictus: A neofeudal and corrupt faction, they are the Kindred aristocracy, drawing strength from tradition.
 * 2) The Carthian Movement: In many ways the opposite of the Invictus, the Carthians seeks to revolutionize Kindred society using modern governmental and social systems.
 * 3) The Circle of the Crone: Blood sorcerers, witches, and pagans, the Circle venerates a Mother deity, a Mother of Monsters that they believe to be the progenitor of vampires.
 * 4) The Lancea Sanctum: Believing themselves ordained by God to torment and test humanity, the religious Lancea Sanctum draw their lineage from Longinus, the centurion who stabbed a spear through Christ.
 * 5) The Ordo Dracul: A secret society began by Dracula himself whose goal is to ultimately transcend the vampiric condition into something greater.

This will only be used if a group of like-minded individuals, beyond covenant, group together regularly, and decide to give themselves a name.
 * Coterie

Some of these can be taken at creation, others have their requirements listed in their descriptions. Bloodlines other than ones listed in the Core rulebook are ST approval only. Ancient Bloodlines are not allowed.
 * Bloodline

Attributes
Each attribute begins with one free dot, and further dots are purchased through character creation and experience points. All characters start with the following allotment: 5/4/3. These spent in Mental, Physical or Social. Note that 1 is considered poor, 2 is average, 3 is above average, 4 is exceptional, and 5 is among the best in the world. The fifth dot in an attribute costs 2 points instead of 1. The fifth dot in an Attribute costs 2 points.

Note that each attribute is also defined as Power, Finesse, or Resistance. Power tends to refer to a character imposing himself on his environment, Finesse implies a more fine precision, while Resistance, as its name suggests, resists the effects of both the Power and Finesse applications of an attribute set.

For combat, Dexterity applies to Firearms and Thrown Weapons, while Strength factors in to brawling and weaponry. See the other traits section further down for the immediate mechanical impact of other attributes.

Skills
Like attributes, skills are placed into three categories, Mental, physical, and social and characters get a certain amount of points to spend on each. The difference is that skills do not start with a free dot, and possessing no dots in a skill means that you are unskilled. The allotment for skills is as follows: 11/7/4. Like attributes, the 5th dot in an skill costs 2 points instead of 1.

Note the skill for being unskilled in a skill. This is a penalty to your dice pool if you roll with a skill that you do not have. Mental Skills have a -3 penalty, while social and physical have only a -1 penalty. It is easier to rely on your natural Dexterity to fire a gun than your natural Intelligence to solve a complex mathematical problem. These penalties are the main way to cause the roll of a chance die. If your Intelligence is 3 or less and you attempt to solve the aforementioned complex mathematical problem with no points in Academics, you'll be rolling a chance die.

Finally, each character begins play with 3 Skill Specialties. These are highly specific examples of the overarching skill, and add a single die to your pool when that particular specialty comes into play. Examples include rifles for Firearms and Automobile for Crafting.

Traits
Characters begin play with 7 points worth of Merits. These are benefits to your character that are not conveyed through Attributes or Abilities: quirks like Barfly, physical attractiveness(Striking Looks), combat styles like kung-fu, etc.


 * Health is determined by adding your Size(5 in all but a few rare cases) to your Stamina. This determines how much damage you take before you are rendered unconscious and die, so it is rather important.

In all cases, this Willpower point must be spent before the roll is made. Willpower is also sometimes used as a form of resistance, though this usually applies to supernatural effects.
 * Willpower is determined by Resolve + Composure. While Willpower is never rolled, it provides a number of points equal to itself that can be spent in a couple ways:
 * 1) Gain +3 dice on a single roll, cannot be used on a Morality roll degeneration roll.
 * 2) Add 2 to your Defense, Stamina, Resolve, or Composure against a single roll.


 * Size equals 5 for adult humans.


 * Speed equals Strength + Dexterity + 5.


 * Defense equals the lower of your Dexterity or Wits score.


 * Armor equals the total armor worn, which can be purchased in-game. It has two ratings, one against brawl, melee and thrown attacks, and another against firearms. Often, armor has a penalty to defense, a strength requirement, a speed penalty, and/or a requirement of a certain level of the Resources merit.


 * Initiative Mod equals Dexterity + Composure, and determines combat order.


 * Experience simply provides a space for earned, unspent experience points.


 * Humanity starts at 7, and reflects a character's sense of compassion and respect for the law. This can rise or fall based on actions taken throughout the chronicle and can even debilitate the character with forms of insanity known as derangements. If all Morality or Humanity is lost, the character becomes an npc.

Although not present above, characters can also begin play with a Physical, Social, or Mental Flaw, or acquire one during play. This provides the potential to earn an extra experience point every once in awhile, as long as the flaw is played in a sufficiently debilitating manner. Examples include Dwarf, Aloof, Embarrassing Secret, etc

Finally, weapons and armor list what your character has on his person and/or the method of his attack. A separate thread will detail them, though keep in mind that most of the halfway decent stuff requires a Resources score. Looking at the basic weapons list, a character with no points in Resources could begin with Reinforced Clothing, a club, and a stake. The cheapest guns take 2 dots.

Vampire Template
The following are added to the Human creation rules above to make a Vampire.

Daeva: Dexterity or Manipulation Gangrel: Composure or Stamina Mekhet: Intelligence or Wits Nosferatu: Composure or Strength Ventrue: Presence or Resolve
 * Add one point to either favored clan attribute. The favored clan attributes are as follows:


 * Add 3 points of Disciplines. Two must be in-clan.


 * Determine Blood Potency. All vampires start with a Blood Potency of 1. This can be raised with Merit points at a cost of three to 1. So Blood Potency 2 costs 3 points and Blood Potency 3 costs 6 points.


 * Starting with Blood Potency 2 allows a character to join a Bloodline. Because this occurs in the biography rather than during the course of the storyline, a dot of Willpower is not expended in the process.


 * Additionally, vampires use Humanity instead of Morality and have an additional option unavailable to Humans and Ghouls: they ordinarily start with Humanity 7, but may exchange up to 2 points worth of Humanity for 5 extra experience points each, starting as low as Humanity 5 with 10 extra experience. See the experience point thread under the experience point section for details.