RotTV RPG System

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Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Chapter 1: Character Creation
  • Attributes
  • Skills
  • Perks
    • Sorcery
    • Faith
    • Merits & Flaws
• Chapter 2: Character Advancement
  • Leveling
  • Gaining Attribute Points
  • Gaining Skill Points
  • Unlocking Additional Perks
• Chapter 3: Dramatic Systems
  • Skill Use & Challenges
  • Combat
    • Attacking & Hitting
    • Damage
    • Armor
    • Special Maneuvers
  • Health and Healing
  • Status Effects
• Chapter 4: Magic
  • Wizardry
  • Sorcery
  • Mysticism
  • Specialist Hybrids
  • Priests
• Chapter 5:   The Others
  • Bloodthralls
  • Children of Dagon
  • Giantkin
  • Lycanthropes
• Credits

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Introduction

Adventure starts here!

So, you’re ready to take the step from hack n’ slash or soft RP, and combine them into a full-featured RP system for complex storytelling, dramatic systems, and GM’d scenes of wonder, wandering, and warfare? Look no further! Here, we’re going to present for you a system that is robust as it is elegant. RotTV RPG is based almost wholly upon the  World of Darkness Storyteller system.

At this time, the sourcebooks in use are Vampire: the Masquerade, 20th Anniversary Edition, Werewolf: the Apocalypse 20th Anniversary Edition, World of Darkness: Sorcerer (Revised), and World of Darkness: Sorcerer. All of these pieces have been brought together to create something that is extremely easy to learn in just minutes, but presents enough depth of gameplay to allow you to forge characters and stories that will remain interesting and relevant for years to come. This system uses no character classes, no complex calculations, and offers very few restrictions in how you can build your character, giving you the power to make characters that are interesting and meaningful to you, regardless of where your character starts out. Moreover, because of its simplicity, it’s no longer scary to be the GM. Anyone can pick up this system and use it to tell a story. We hope very much that you’ll take a peek between our pages, grab some d10’s, a pencil, and paper, and join us on a journey of collaborative storytelling. As of this first writing, I’m simply trying to get everything in place to allow people to make characters and run very simple scenes. If you’d like to get ahead of the game, please feel welcome to pick up any of the books linked above, and jump right in.

Additionally, if there are other factions, powers, races, or other material from these books that you’d like to see reflected in the game, just shoot Asterix a message to see if it’s possible to get it added in the game.  If it’s possible, we’ll see it done. Other World of Darkness material can be adapted to the server if possible, and nearly endless other options exist to be brought in from the World of Darkness at Drivethru RPG. Full disclosure:  Anything you purchase through their site using these links provides a little bit of an affiliate perk for the server, and provides us a little bit of help in offsetting server costs, custom mod work, and so on!

A Note for World of Darkness Purists: I’m going to level with you. There are a lot of small changes we’ve had to make simply due to limitations of our dice systems. As such, rather than having difficulties vary higher or lower than 7 based on how hard or easy a task is, we’ve instead used a sort of bastardized version of the NWoD system to adjust difficulties. Right now, a success/hit is rolled in your dice pool with a 1 or greater, and the difficulty for tasks is based on the number of successes rolled. See the difficulty scale, below.  Additionally, kindred and garou exist, but with a different origin, and so far back in history that things like clans, tribes, and the curses of these creatures haven’t yet solidified. To that end, some of their core mechanics are different from the books, mainly to make it more possible to actually play them in a video game setting.

A Note for Conan Purists: I enjoy the different Conan RPG systems. I do–this one is a tiny bit less obscure, is one that a lot of our staff and leadership are more familiar with, and is VERY Easily taught as most of the dice system can be summed up in, “Add two numbers together. Count as high as 10. Roll dice.”  SUPER easy, and pretty universal across the system. We wanted to make the barrier to entry as low as possible to jump in and start playing.  So, lore is largely from the video game first, the Mophidius game next, and expanded Howard/Lovecraft where those two don’t cover something, and the system is just the Storyteller system straight from the books.

A Note for All Players: I’m not an evil ST/evil DM, and my purpose here isn’t to punish player or limit their fantasies. Instead, I simply want to make sure we have tools in place to let people tell great stories, develop meaningful characters, and have fun together. I’m also not perfect, and if something is broken, please do my two HUGE favors:
1. Let me know! I get it, sometimes I suck, but I don’t know I suck until someone tells me what sucks.
2. Be patient.  Give me a little bit to figure out how to fix the suck, and time to implement it.

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Chapter One:  Character Creation

Step 1 — Concept

Far more important what your character is or what they can do, is who they are. By first figuring out your character’s “who,” it becomes much easier to define and discover their “what.” Some example character concepts include:

Autocrat: You were made to lead.
Barbarian: Civilization the crutch of the weak.
Caretaker: You are your brother’s keeper.
Celebrant: Pursue excitement in all things.
Defender: You stand guard over that for which you care.
Gallant: Whatever you do, do it with style.
Jester: The real fools are those who don’t see the flaws you point out in them.
Judge: Someone must decide, must make the hard choices.
Pedagogue: The world needs instructions.
Penitent: You are a sinner. Can you make up for it?
Rebel: The order of the world is corrupt. Are you?
Survivor: When the horn sounds on Judgement Day, you will be there. At all costs.

The is by no means an exhaustive list, and you’re absolutely encouraged to find another concept for a character that resonates with you. Having some idea of what kind of person your character is helps to inform on what they can do, what their limitations are, and where their strengths lie.

Step 2 – Determining Perks

Once you’re in-game and you have your character concept in mind, press Shift-R.

This will bring you to the splash page for the roleplay system.  From this page, you can access abilities your character perform in-game, emotes you can perform for your character (there are a lot!) as well as a Biography and Consent sheet.  We’ll go over each of these in turn, but for now, we’re looking at the actual Character Generation page.  To start on this, click on the big green  [Create Character] button.

This is going to open a whole host of options, and within those pages, we’re going to see all of the tools that we need to make a character that represents the Concept we came up with, back in Step 1. The next big choice we have to make is what flavor of character are we going to play?

Outsiders:

Human – This is the default, and for good reason!  Humans have more flexibility and more character options than any of the outsiders, and none of the weaknesses that the other races face. The humans of Siptah’s Isle are the most populous group, and have a huge variety of races, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. The Outsiders below each have their own strengths and weaknesses, making them able to interact with the human denizens of the island, but never fully able to integrate. Each of them is covered in more detail later in this guide.

Dagonite – The Children of Dagon are a strange group. Coastal peoples, intermingled with the fish people from the seas, have after several generations, become a new race of mer-folk, beloved to Dagon, blessed to live near and beneath the waves, but ultimately alien to most of society. They have gills and can breathe water, swim faster, and are resistant to fire, but their alien nature makes them difficult to relate to other races. This race is not yet playable.

Half-Giant – The children of Ymir are gigantic, towering beings of storming fury and frost. Whether through strange magic or unscrupulous pairings in the North, human and giant blood has co-mingled, resulting in men and women of tremendous size and power, whose very presence is the equal of five on the battlefield. Their strength, their reach, and their bulk makes them overwhelmingly powerful combatants, and their resilience makes them able to stay standing long enough to become legends.

Vampire – Vampires. Cursed by foul Chthonic magics, long lost in the cataclysmic fall of ancient kingdoms, there are lineages of cursed beings sustained by the blood and life-force of the living. Though few and far between, vampires hide in plain sight, masquerading as and feeding from humanity. Weakened under the sun and emboldened by the night sky, these penultimate predators are terror, personified.

Most have pale, almost translucent flesh paper-white or sickly gray, and none are able to cast a reflection in a mirror, but these cunning predators often make due with trickery and manipulation in order to hide their predatory nature. They are weakened by sunlight, fire seems to hurt them extremely badly, and while an arrow through the heart won’t instantly kill them, it does paralyze them, making it much easier to capture or dispatch them. Beware a vampire’s ire at night, however, where they are stronger, faster, and more powerful than man can imagine in their darkest nightmares.

A Note for World of Darkness Purists:  Vampires in this world a result of cthonic magic, deals with dark, elder things, and curses that came about during the fall of Atlantis. Compared to V:tM, vampires here are still relatively new. To that end, things like bloodlines and clans haven’t really started solidifying, and things like clan flaws, clan disciplines, and the such haven’t quite solidified. Their limitations are much more in line with the “classic” vampire lore, meaning they all experience the following:

• Pale/ghoulish flesh
• Cast No Reflection
• Cannot enter a dwelling without invitation (This generally only applies to the home part of a dwelling, in the case of larger compounds and villages. These are the houses of villages, or the sleeping/living apartments of large bases and castles.)
• Double damage from all sources when in sunlight
• Double damage from fire
• +2 all difficulties during daytime hours
• -2 all difficulties during dawn, dusk, and nighttime hours.
• All of their powers are fueled by blood taken from the living.

Werewolf – Those blessed (or cursed!) by the touch of Jhebbal Sag are spoken of in whispers and hushed tones in homes and taverns across the land. There are many who have succumbed to the fury of nature and remain trapped in a world between animal and human, but a whole other population exists, of those with the blessings of the wolf, who are able to change, shifting between the two worlds, and waging a constant war of balance between civilization and nature.  These are the werewolves. The lupines. The Children of Jhebbal Sag. Werewolves are mystical creatures, able to change into a wolf, becoming faster, tougher, and more nimble than a human, or into a powerful warrior-spirit, somewhere between wolf and man, with terrible claws, horrifying strength, and the ability to regenerate injuries that would kill lesser beings outright. Their power, however, comes from their boundless rage, and every frenzy carries with it the frightful chance to lose control, destroying loved-one and ally alike, and the possibility of never leaving their wild form, becoming trapped forever in these wilderness.

Werewolves tend to be more susceptible to magic, are frequently weak to poisons, but if angered, are the last things a hunter sees. Bound to powerful oaths and sworn duties to natural spirits, theirs is a mixed life of spiritual servitude, violence, and misery, often spent on the fringe of several happy lives, but never living completely in any one.

A Note for World of Darkness Purists: Werewolves are the most direct blessed/children of Jhebbal Sag, though he did “interact” with a number of other races, meaning there are more than merely werewolves around the world. See: Children of Jhil, Children of Gullah, etc. Werewolves are pack-oriented, but have not yet become so specialized or divided to have specific tribes, yet. Likewise, the Triumvirate of Weaver, Wyld, and Wyrm are not yet fully in control of this world, given the vast interferences from things in the Deep Umbra. The Weaver has not yet gone insane, the Wyrm is not yet corrupted (at least on a wide scale). There’s something akin to balance–for now–and Werewolves stand as the ultimate expression of the Wyld. Gifts are bound together in paths, as the world is still too chaotic and wyld to really have the kind of subdivisions of spirits that exist in modern nights. Just as they are still loose, mixed concepts, rather than distinct identities, their Gifts do not yet have the specific identity and fluidity that Garou are able to enjoy much, much later in the world’s development. This both makes it much easier to connect to and advance in a given group of Gifts, but at the expense of lacking some of the ability to call to spirits and learn specific abilities–For now. Additionally, the werewolf relationship with the moon is not yet quite what it is in the modern nights, and silver doesn’t cause extreme harm, though it does cause discomfort. Werewolves are largely individualistic, but have a core set of traits they all share:

• Four forms: Human, enhanced wolfy human, human/wolf war hybrid, and wolf. Each one has added strengths and drawbacks, covered in more detail later.
• Their increased metabolism means they have to eat and drink MUCH MORE than normal mortals
• Their increased metabolism means they take double damage from poison as it courses more readily through their system
• The split mind between human and wolf makes them more susceptible to magic, treating their willpower as 2 less to resist magical forces.
• Susceptibility to frenzy:  Werewolves are creatures of intense Rage. Any time they’re stressed out or attacked while Rage exceeds Willpower calls for a Frenzy check. Roll a willpower check versus a difficulty of 1/2 your current rage pool. Failure means frenzy–and that’s peril to everything around–even your allies!

Attributes:

A character’s base capacity to accomplish tasks are defined by one of ten traits. Nine of these traits fall into specific categories. Physical attributes describe the body and how hearty and powerful it is. Social attributes describe how well the character is able to relate to and interact with other characters. Next, mental attributes describe how astute your a character is at understanding the world around them. No starting attribute can be more than 2 points higher than your lowest attribute without the use of perks.

Finally, there is Willpower–the character’s life force, and their ability to stand their ground in the face of terror, to steel themselves against the madness that showers down around them in this dark world, or how well their endure mental and emotional hardships that befall every survivor. For a number of different challenges, such as resisting magical effects, controlling a werewolf’s rage, or staving off a feeding frenzy for a vampire, Willpower is the attribute that keeps your character under control or helps them overcome extreme odds.

• Physical:
  • Strength: Raw physical strength. This is also your dice pool for hitting people, jumping distances, pushing, pulling, bending, or breaking things.
  • Dexterity: This is your speed & ease of movement, covering both full body movement and hand-eye coordination. Dexterity is the character’s ability to manipulate objects with control and precision.
  • Stamina: Physical hardiness, including resistance to disease and physical trauma and how fast you can recover. Stamina also includes a bit of psychic fortitude, indicating grit and tenacity.
• Social
  • Charisma: Charisma is a measure of the character’s ability to entice and please people through their personality. How you come across to others socially and conduct yourself in public when not actively interacting.
  • Manipulation: Covers the character’s ability for self-expression in  the interests of getting others to share their outlook or follow their whims. How easily you bend others to your will, either through persuasion or threats.
  • Appearance: Your level of attractiveness, not merely in physical beauty, but in how the character carries themselves and presents themselves to others. May be raised temporarily with clothing or other adornments.
• Mental
  • Perception:  A measure of the character’s ability to observe their environment. It is their ability to notice things and perceive the world around you, through all of your senses.
  • Intelligence: This refers to the character’s grasp of facts and knowledge. It also governs reasoning, problem-solving, and analysis.
  • Wits: Quickness of thinking; measures how easily you make leaps of logic or intuition. Wits is the character’s ability to think on their feet and react quickly to certain situations.
• Willpower: Willpower measures a character’s inner drive and competence at overcoming unfavorable odds. Unlike other attributes, it has both a permanent rating, and a temporary pool of points, and no associated skills. Instead, Willpower serves both as a resistance against a great many of attacks and abilities, as well as a way to “try again,” allowing you a limited use of re-rolls, a way to temporarily overcome injury, mind control, or restore lost spell points. Because of its myriad uses, Willpower is, and will remain, one of the most important attributes your characters have. A point of Willpower can be spent for the following effects:
  • Reroll a failed roll.
  • If you’re in a conflict with another player, and they spend WP to reroll something related to your conflict, a willpower can be spent to cancel their reroll.
  • Act normally for 1 round while impacted by a negative status effect, such as mind control, wound penalties, and so on.
  • Regain 2 spent spell points.
  • For passive contested challenges, such as a general attempt to intimidate everyone in a room, when an ability lists the difficulty as being “the target’s Willpower,” the target number is one half of the target’s XP, rounded down.
    • Example:  Merrin attempts to cast a sleeping spell against Torholm, but Torholm is unaware and not actively bringing his force of will against this spell. He has a current Willpower pool of 7. The difficulty for the spell is 3.  (7/2: 3.5, rounded down = 3.) Merrin needs to roll 3 or more successes to put Torholm to sleep.
  • Alternatively, the defending character can opt for an active defense. They spend 1 Willpower point, and roll their entire pool against the target.
    • Example: Torholm is furious at the attempt to put him to sleep. He responds by roaring at Merrin in an attempt to intimidate her, resulting in 2 successes. Merrin chooses an active defense. Her Willpower is 8. She spends one point, bringing her down to 7, and rolls 7d10.  The result is 4 successes–more than enough to beat Torholm’s Intimidation
• Health Levels
  • Health is a measure of your character’s physical well-being. Characters can never roll more dice for an action than double their current health level. This means that a character reduced to one or fewer health levels is effectively incapacitated and unable to take an action without expending Willpower.
  • Dropping below 1 Health does not kill a character, unless the player chooses to allow Final Death, but negative health levels do increase the amount of healing needed to return them to consciousness, and will not exceed the negative value of their total health.
  • Characters heal automatically outside of combat/hazard, depending on how badly injured they are. Each level adds 30 minutes per level to the total time needed to heal each health level. For instance: 1 damage heals in 30 minutes. 3 damage heals in 180 minutes (30 + 60 + 90, for lost health levels 1, 2, and 3.) and so on. Damage taken during healing time resets the timer entirely.
  • Another character can help to accelerate the healing process of each health level with a Medicine check. Each success on a Medicine + Intelligence roll reduces the healing time by ten minutes. Characters attempting to treat themselves can do so, but it only cuts down the healing time by 5 minutes.
    • Medical treatment is limited to 1 test each from a single attending medic and the injured character, per injury level.
  • Magical healing heals the “worst” damage level first. In the example above, let’s say that a friendly character casts a healing spell on the injured character, removing 1 health level of damage. The 90-minute long health level is the one removed, cutting the healing time from 180 minutes down to 90.
  • Click here to view the damage / healing time chart.
• Spell Points
  • Spell Points measure a character’s connection to the ether; the energies tying the world together. These spell points are used to empower and give form to the various magical spells casters are able to create. When a character has no more Spell Points remaining, or they lack the Spell Points necessary to cast a spell, they are unable to focus enough energy to perform that spell effect. Spell Points cannot go into the negative, but can be rapidly regained through sacrifice.
  • Each time a spell is cast, the player first expends a number of spell points equal to the power level of the spell they are casting.
  • The base Target Difficulty for activating a spell is 2.
    • +1 If it’s during combat
    • +1 for spell level 2-3
    • +2 for spell level 4-5
    • -1 for each turn spent casting (up to 3, minimum Diff 1)
    • -1 for wearing a holy symbol (Priests), carrying a staff  or other obvious focus item (Sorcerers), or being in a shape other than human (Shifters)
  • Spell activation, unless otherwise indicated in the power’s description is the spell’s attribute + path level.
    • Spirit Gifts are a little different, and their abilities vary power-by-power. Some are fueled by Rage, some by Spell Points, and others require both–or neither.
    • Disciplines all require at least one (often more) Blood Points for activation. For some Disciplines, the use of Spell Points may additionally be required. Consult specific powers for their costs and specific rules.

Skills:

While your Attributes explain your character’s capability, their skills describe their aptitude. These collectively represent the talents, training, and knowledge that your character has amassed that has made them capable survivors and valuable members of society–or not. Most skills are rolled against a difficulty of 3 or contested with another character’s actions. Below are the default attributes/skill combinations, but an ST or narrator may call for a custom roll, manually combining an attribute and a skill in various interesting and descriptive ways, allowing for the stories to hold nearly boundless possibilities for how stories can be told and shared.

Skills marked with an asterisk ( * ) are Ability Paths, and each dot purchased in one of these unlocks a new power in that path of progression. Starting Ability Paths may not exceed their parent attribute minus one. (eg: If your vampire’s starting Strength is 4, Potence start higher than 3.)

PRIMARY SKILLS

• • Skill Name (Default Attribute) – Note that any appropriate attribute can be used with a skill.
    • Un/Trained  – Can this skill be used without training
    • Description: – Details of how the skill is used and what activities it covers.
  • NOTE: Spell paths, Vampire Disciplines, and Shifter Gifts are all handled a little differently than skills, even though they are purchased in the Skill window.
    • Most of these paths do not function with the normal progression of Attribute + Skill = roll. Instead, each level purchased opens a new spell or ability.
    • If you have Intelligence 5, and have purchased 2 levels of Sorcery: Cursing, this means you can cast the first 2 levels of Cursing, not that you have 7 ranks of Cursing.
    • If you have Stamina 4 and 3 levels of Spirit Gifts: Rage, that means you can use the first 3 ranks of the Rage path, not 7.
    • These skills and their specific abilities are listed after the other spells.

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  • Academics (Intelligence)
    • Trained
    • This catch-all knowledge skill covers the character’s erudition in the “humanities:” literature, history, art, philosophy and other liberal sciences. A character with dots in Academics is literate, generally well-rounded in these fields, and at high levels may be considered an expert in one or more areas of study. Not only can this Knowledge impress at salons and other high-class functions, but it can also offer valuable clues to certain past – and future movements in the world stage.
  • Alchemy (Intelligence)
    • Trained
    • You are familiar with the writings of the the world’s renowned alchemists, and you also have some practical experience in creating alchemical formulae. You can interpret alchemical texts, and you understand the various symbols and ciphers used by the alchemists even when you find them in a non-alchemical context.
  • Alertness (Perception)
    • Untrained
    • This is your basic knack for noticing things that go on around you, even when you’re not actively looking for them.
      Alertness describes the attention you pay to the outside world, whether otherwise occupied or not. This Talent is typically
      paired with Perception, and is best used when sensing physical stimuli (as opposed to moods or clues).
  • Animal Ken (Wits)
    • Untrained
    • You can understand an animal’s behavior patterns. This Skill allows you to predict how an animal might react in a given situation, train a domesticated creature, or even try to calm or enrage animals.
  • Archery (Dexterity)
    • Trained
    • You know how to fire a bow, and may be able to do so with great proficiency. Modern bows can be very complicated gadgets (especially crossbows), and this Skill is essential if you hope to use them correctly.
  • Artillery (Intelligence)
    • Trained
    • You may operate, shoot, and manage artillery of all varieties – anything from an indirect crossbow fire to teams of trebuchets. Additionally, your knowledge of the weapons includes the ability to repair them.
  • Athletics (Dexterity)
    • Untrained
    • This Talent represents your basic athletic ability, as well as any training you might have had in sports or other rigorous
      activities. Athletics concerns all forms of running, jumping, swimming, sports and the like; however, it doesn’t
      cover basic motor actions such as lifting weights, nor does it govern athletic feats covered by another Ability (such as
      Melee).
  • Awareness (Perception)
    • Trained
    • Unlike Alertness, which measures a character’s sensitivity to mundane events, Awareness is a gut reaction to the presence of magic. Usually, only mages possess this particular Talent. Once attuned to the supernatural, such students of the arcane just get hunches, chills, or sudden flashes of inspiration. Magic calls to magic, and the character recognizes instinctively when something’s just not right in the area. Of course, knowing that something’s wrong doesn’t mean that the character knows what it is; that’s the province of proper knowledge. Awareness can be used deliberately if a spellcaster suspects that something is mystical, in order to determine a general impression of the item or creature.
  • Brawl (Strength)
    • Untrained
    • The Brawl Talent represents how well you fight in tooth-and-nail situations. This Talent represents skill in unarmed combat. Effective brawlers are coordinated, resistant to pain, quick, strong and mean; the willingness to do whatever it takes to hurt your opponent wins plenty of fights.
  • Common Sense (Wits)
    • Untrained
    • You have a significant amount of practical, everyday wisdom. This Talent represents your collection of generally useful knowledge, which can be called upon to seek guidance from your Storyteller if an action might violate practicality.
  • Cosmology (Intelligence)
    • Trained
    • Mages spend a great deal of time studying other worlds and dealing with spirits. The Cosmology Knowledge represents this sort of education. Of course, the ways of the Spirit World are diverse and strange, and there’s no way to guarantee that what works in one place or time will work again. Still, certain landmarks and traits are mostly reliable, and some spirits have a habit of meddling with mages more than others. From such benchmarks, the mage can make guesses about aspects of the universe and its denizens.
  • Crafts (Intelligence)
    • Trained
    • This Skill covers your ability to make or fix things with your hands. Crafts allows you to work in fields such as carpentry, leatherwork, or weaving. You can even create lasting works of art with this Skill, depending on the number of successes you achieve. It is encouraged to choose a specialty in a particular type of craft, even though you retain some skill in multiple fields.
  • Dodge (Dexterity)
    • Untrained
    • The first rule of self-preservation, this Talent covers your ability to avoid blows, missile fire or even charging rhinos. Dodge entails taking cover, ducking punches or any other methods of getting out of harm’s way.
  • Diplomacy (Charisma)
    • Untrained
    • You have the ability to deal with people of all types and creeds. Even when handling touchy subjects, you are able to get results without ruffling too many feathers. You are skilled at delicate negotiations and mediating disputes – getting along with others without overt manipulation and without letting your own aims fall to the wayside. This Ability involves a knowledge of the formal rules of give and-take, as well as the official cultural rules of conduct and politeness.
  • Disguise (Appearance)
    • Trained
    • You can conceal your appearance and even make yourself look like another specific person through the use of clothes and makeup.
    • A creative use of makeup, costume, and accessory changes is highly encouraged. Doing so, in guided scenes, can confer a +1 automatic success.
    • Characters must know who the disguised character is in order to gain their identity. Otherwise, they can only surmise that a person was trying to hide their identity.
    • Disguised characters should update their status message to indicate that they are disguised, giving people a chance to roll Alertness.
  • Empathy (Perception)
    • Untrained
    • You understand the emotions of others, and can sympathize with, feign sympathy for, or play on such emotions as you see
      fit. You are an easy hand at discerning motive, and might be able to pick up on when someone’s lying to you. However, you
      may be so in tune with other people’s feelings that your own emotions are affected.
  • Enigmas (Wits)
    • Untrained
    • Mysteries are stock in trade for magic-workers. Some magicians make an especial study of puzzles, riddles and mysterious circumstances, though. When gut instincts fail and logic can’t offer a solution, the character with a broad knowledge of Enigmas sees clever solutions, hidden meanings and the motives behind such tricks. The Enigmas Knowledge can be used for figuring out the best way to approach a puzzle, the answer to a spirit’s riddle or even just the morning crossword.
  • Escapology (Dexterity)
    • Trained
    • You are skilled in various techniques that enable you to escape from bonds and restraints.
  • Etiquette (Manipulation)
    • Trained
    • You understand the nuances of proper behavior, in both high society and formal settings. It also covers a broad knowledge of “proper” behavior and customs, allowing the character to make someone feel welcome, lower their guard, or to avoid offending someone. This Skill can be used used during haggling, seduction, dancing, dinner etiquette and all forms of diplomacy.
  • Expression (Charisma)
    • Untrained
    • This is your ability to get your point across clearly, whether through conversation, poetry or even a letter in the mail. Characters with high Expression can phrase their opinions or beliefs in a manner that cannot be ignored (even if their opinions are misinformed or worthless). They might also be talented actors, skilled at conveying moods or feigning emotion with every gesture. Additionally, this Talent represents your ability for poetry, creative writing or other literary art forms.
  • Forgery (Wits)
    • Trained
    • This skill allows characters to forge documents. Two rolls are required: one to know what type of forms and signatures are necessary, and the other to actually sit down and forge the papers. The player is only able to roll as many dice on the second roll as the number of successes achieved on the first roll. It is very difficult to successfully forge documents.
  • Grapple (Strength)
    • Untrained
    • An attacker can try to grab a foe, hoping to either immobilize them and hold them in submission. If the attacker scores more successes than the opponent’s Strength, the victim is immobilized and held. In the next round, she can begin to inflict harm at a rate of one damage per turn until the opposing character breaks the grapple. Any character struck by this attack loses their remaining attacks for the current turn. Continuing to grapple during each turn after the first requires the combatants to make opposed Strength rolls. Whoever accumulates more successes may opt to immobilize the other. If both score the same number of successes, neither gains the upper hand this turn.
  • Haggling (Manipulation)
    • Untrained
    • You are skilled at bargaining and can reduce another’s price, or get some other concession, under most circumstances. Each net success you score reduces the price by five percent if you are buying, or increases the character’s offer by five percent if you are selling. Failure means the price does not budge and the other character may become angry.
  • Heavy Weapons (Strength)
    • Untrained
    • Where most melee weapons require a certain degree of finesse and dexterity to strike an accurate blow, Heavy Weapons are much more general, addressing those blows “to whom it may concern.” Heavy Weapons attack in wide, wild arcs, cleaving through groups of enemies. Instead of attacking a single target, this skill allows the attacker to hit a number of enemies in melee range per success, with damage only being equal to their Strength plus the weapon rating.
      • Low Grade weapon: Strength +0
      • Mid Grade weapon: Strength +1
      • High Grade weapon: Strength +2
      • Legendary weapon: Strength +3
    • For a weapon to be utilized in a scene, it must be visible or otherwise represented on the character.
  • Herbalism (Intelligence)
    • Trained
    • You have a working knowledge of herbs and their properties, medicinal and otherwise. You can find and prepare herbs, and know which herb or blend of herbs to use in any situation.
  • Impress (Appearance)
    • Untrained
    • Similar to Etiquette, this Skill involves being able to move within society in polite functions, but where Etiquette is a more codified series of accepted and expected behaviors, a character who can Impress knows how to fill the space, demand an audience, and present themselves in the best possible light. This skill can be used during seduction, dancing, distractions, and all forms of subterfuge.
  • Initiative (Wits)
    • Untrained
    • This Skill represents how quick your character is off the mark, and is the culmination of how alert they are to their surroundings, as well as the mental and physical reaction speed needed to adapt and respond to rapidly changes in those surroundings. This Talent is also used to bid for turn order in mass combat.
  • Interrogation (Wits)
    • Untrained
    • Interrogation can occur in a number of different situations. It is a form of questioning, not torture, though intimidation can certainly be employed. Interrogation is resisted by the target’s Willpower, requiring the interrogator to amass a number of successes equal to the target’s temporary Willpower rating. The defender rolls their Willpower pool in a contested roll.
  • Intimidation (Manipulation)
    • Untrained
    • Intimidation takes many forms, from outright threats and physical violence to mere force of personality. You know the right method for each occasion, and can be very… persuasive. When used against an unwilling target, every 3 successes in Intimidation reduce the target’s temporary Willpower by 1. The target can resist by rolling their temporary Willpower pool in a contested roll.
  • Investigation (Intelligence)
    • Trained
    • You’ve learned to notice details others might overlook, and might make an admirable detective. This Knowledge represents not only a good eye for detail, but also an ability to do research and follow leads.
  • Leadership (Charisma)
    • Untrained
    • You are an example to others and can inspire them to do what you want. Leadership has less to do with manipulating people’s desires than it does with presenting yourself as the sort of person they want to follow. This Talent is usually paired with Charisma rather than Manipulation. A good leader can attempt to inspire the people around them. After a brief, particularly rousing, speech, a leader can roll Charisma + Leadership, granting a temporary Willpower die to all friendly characters within hearing range for every 3 successes on this roll. These temporary bonus dice are lost at the end of the current scene.
  • Linguistics: (Intelligence)
    • Trained
    • You are skilled in communicating both verbally and in written form in many languages. In addition to speaking more than common Stygian, you are sometimes able to determine the general structure of a language or the loose meaning of a conversation, without fluency in the conversation. Additionally, for each level of Linguistics purchased, you know additional languages:
      • Linguistics 0: 1 language, speech only.  For most characters, this will by Stygian
      • Linguistics 1: 2 languages
      • Linguistics 2: 4 languages
      • Linguistics 3: 7 languages
      • Linguistics 4: 11 languages
      • Linguistics 5: 16 languages
  • Lore: Outsiders (Intelligence)
    • Trained
    • You have picked up general knowledge of and some limited history about the non-human denizens of the world.  This ability opens up three different focus skills, for Dagonites, Vampires, and Werewolves.
  • Lore: Sorcery (Intelligence)
    • Trained
    • You have picked up knowledge about magic-related lore and magic effects. This lore gives an individual lore about the arcane, but does not impart the specific secrets to enable a person to create magical effects. This skill can be used after a successful Awareness roll in order to try and determine more specific details about the nature of a mystical effect.
  • Lore: Religion (Intelligence)
    • Trained
    • You have picked up general knowledge about gods, religious traditions and ceremonies, divine effects, holy symbols, and theology. This lore does not give specific knowledge of the mysteries or rituals of a specific faith, however, but can help to identify the general purposes of a ritual, holy day, altar, etc. This skill can be used after a successful Awareness roll in order to try and determine more specific details about the nature of a mystical effect.
  • Martial Arts (Dexterity)
    • Trained
    • The Martial Arts Talent represents practiced, skilled hand-to-hand combat that focuses more on finesse over strength. Effective martial artists are coordinated, hard to hit, quick, strong and disciplined; the focus to maintain one’s cool and deliver effective blows with minimal effort will get you out of the worst tangles with minimal injury. Whereas Brawlers will rely upon Strength to hammer away at an opponent, a Martial Artist will deliver swift, accurate blows with their Dexterity, making sure that they hit specifically in the areas that will hurt the most.
  • Medicine (Intelligence)
    • Trained
    • You have an understanding of how the human body works. This Ability entails knowledge of medicines, ailments, first-aid procedures, and diagnosis or treatment of disease. Medicine is of great use to those with an interest in repairing, damaging or reworking the human body.
  • Meditation (Intelligence)
    • Trained
    • You are able to enter a trance-like state at will, focusing your mind inward and dealing with a range of mental and physical problems. A successful Meditation roll is necessary to enter this state.While in a meditative state, a character can do no more than walk and short conversation consisting of only 2-3 words at most. During this time however, they can add their Meditation dice to the resistance of mental effects. Additionally, after 30 minutes spent meditating, the character can regain a measure of their Willpower.
  • Melee (Dexterity)
    • Untrained
    • Melee covers your ability to use hand-to-hand weapons of all forms, from swords and clubs to esoteric martial-arts weapons.
      • Low Grade weapon: Strength +0
      • Mid Grade weapon: Strength +1
      • High Grade weapon: Strength +2
      • Legendary weapon: Strength +3
    • For a weapon to be utilized in a scene, it must be visible or otherwise represented on the character.
    • Shields are utilized as a melee weapon for the Block action:
      • Each success scored with a shield block action reduces an attacker’s successes on an attack roll (Brawl, Melee, Martial Arts, Heavy Weapons, some magic.)
      • Attacker’s succeses are reduced in order of initiative. Example:  Merrin is being attacked by 3 bandits. She raises her shield to block their attacks, and scores 4 succeses to to block.  The first thug attacks, scoring 2 successes, and his attack is completely negated. The second attacks, scoring 3 successes, and breaks through Merrin’s defense, but only scores 1 success, and so, gets no bonus dice to damage. The third thug hits with 1 success, and gets no bonus dice to damage.
  • Occult (Wits)
    • Trained
    • You are knowledgeable in occult areas such as mysticism, curses, magic, folklore and particularly vampire lore. Unlike most other Knowledges, Occult does not imply a command of hard, factual information; much of what you know may well be rumor, myth, speculation or hearsay. However, the secrets to be learned in this field are worth centuries of sifting legend from fact. High levels of Occult imply a deep understanding of folklore, as well as a good grounding in other aspects of the occult; at the very least, you can discern what is patently false.
  • Performance (Charisma)
    • Trained
    • The Performance Skill governs your ability to perform artistic endeavors such as singing, dancing, acting or playing a musical instrument. You are almost certainly specialized in one field, although a true virtuoso may be talented in many forms of performance. This Skill represents not only technical know-how, but the ability to work an audience and enrapture them with your show.
  • Restraint Use (Wits)
    • Trained
    • You are skilled in the use of ropes, chains, shackles and other tools to prevent a person from moving, escaping, etc. Not merely knowing how to tie knots or lock shackles, this skill covers being able to identify and effectively prevent an individual from moving or escaping.
  • Ride (Dexterity)
    • Trained
    • You are able to ride comfortably on a mount, and with practice, might be able to fight from horseback. You can also tell the rough value of a mount, are familiar with their tack, and can spot obvious ailments and defects.
  • Rituals (Intelligence)
    • Trained
    • This Knowledge does not impart specific rituals, magic, or religious processes, but rather, represents the necessary discipline, attention to detail, and handling of the specialized symbols and paraphernalia used in the conduct of ritualized practices.
  • Seduction (Appearance)
    • Untrained
    • You know how to lure, attract and command the attention of others in a sexual manner. By the way you hold yourself, how you look at someone and even by the tone of your voice, you are able to arouse and excite those upon whom you practice your wiles. Once you have fully seduced someone, they will be willing to do nearly anything for you.
  • Security (Wits)
    • Trained
    • This Skill entails familiarity with the tools and techniques for picking locks, deactivating traps, or even safecracking, as well as countless forms of breaking and entering. Security is useful not only for theft, but also for setting up “the unbeatable system” or deducing where a thief broke in.
  • Sense Motive (Wits)
    • Untrained
    • Where Empathy uses a familiarity with the micro-expressions and body language to determine if someone is telling the truth, Sense Motive is a skilled nose for BS and the keen wit to be able to sniff out the illogical nature of lies.
  • Sleight of Hand (Dexterity)
    • Trained
    • The quickness of your hands can deceive the eyes of others. You can perform magic tricks and other feats of legerdemain. Sleight of Hand is also useful of swiping small, palm-sized items without detection or picking the pockets of others.
  • Soak (Stamina)
    • Untrained
    • Soak represents a naturally tough character who is able to lean into and shrug off damage. This allows characters to resist a certain amount of physical punishment. When affected by physical damage, a character can roll their soak pool to reduce damage taken at a rate of 1 damage per 2 successes.
    • Soak can be modified by the armor being worn (visibly) by your character.
      • No Armor/Slave Attire:  +0 Dice
      • Light Armor:  (Cloth, reinforced bits) +1 Die
      • Medium Armor: (Leather) +2 Dice
      • Heavy Armor: (Metal/Plate) +3 Dice
    • Shields are covered under Melee
  • Stealth (Dexterity)
    • Untrained
    • This Skill is the ability to avoid being detected, whether you’re hiding or moving at the time. Stealth is often tested against someone else’s Perception + Alertness.
  • Style (Appearance)
    • Trained
    • You may not have been born good-looking, or possessed of a natural charm, but you know how to dress and make the most of your appearance. Even if you are not physically attractive, heads turn because of your dress sense and style. Note that this Talent only applies to people’s reactions to your appearance; once you get closer, it’s up to you.
  • Subterfuge (Manipulation)
    • Untrained
    • You know how to conceal your own motives and project what you like. Furthermore, you can root out other people’s motives, then use those motives against them. This Talent defines your talent for intrigue, secrets and double-dealing; mastery of Subterfuge can make you the ultimate seducer, or a brilliant spy.
  • Survival (Stamina)
    • Trained
    • Although survivors on a tropical island have little to fear from starvation and exposure, the wilderness can still be dangerous to an Exile. This Skill allows you to find shelter, navigate your way to civilization, track prey and represents specific knowledge about nature. When you use Stealth in the wilderness, you cannot roll more dice for your Stealth rating than you have in Survival.
  • Throwing  (Dexterity)
    • Untrained
    • You know how to accurately throw things in general and how to use various types of thrown weapons – anything from javelins and hatchets to orbs and knives.
  • Torture (Stamina)
    • Trained
    • Torture is the specific skill of being able to inflict non-lethal damage upon another person, creating pain rather than injuries. Damage done through torture tears down the victim’s Willpower, rather than Health.
  • Tracking (Perception)
    • Trained
    • Tracking allows you to follow physical evidence to find a target. Discovering footprints, broken twigs, blood trails or other physical signs leads the tracker right to the subject. Multiple successes provide extra information to help the tracker locate the target. Abnormal weather, poor tracking conditions and a shortage of time also adds to cracking difficulty. On a botch, your character not only loses the trail, but also destroys the physical signs of passage. The quarry can cover their tracks and oppose the tracker through a successful Wits + Survival roll.

Religion Paths:

• * Crom:  Crom gives a man courage at birth, and the will and might to kill his enemies. It is useless to call upon him, as he is a gloomy, savage god who hates weaklings. He is more likely to send forth dooms and death from his great mountain.
  1. +1 Diff to attempts to intimidate
  2. -1 Diff to resist fear effects
  3. +1 Diff to attempts to torture
  4. Wound penalties count as though 1 fewer wounds
  5. Immunity to fear/intimidation, +1 Diff to torture
• * Derketo: The dual nature of Derketo encourages worshippers to walk the knife-blade between lust and death, and her magic reflects this. Derketo’s path grants 2 powers at several levels automatically, as a reflection of her duality. (Obeah, pg 457, Valeren, pg 474)
  • 1 – Sense Vitality:  Requires touch. Roll Empathy.
    • One success tells if the target is human or a particular type of Outsider.
    • Two successes tell the target’s current health.
    • Three successes reveal the current Blood, Rage, Spell Points, and Willpower of the target.
    • Four+ successes reveals any diseases or lasting negative effects.
  • 2 – Anesthetic Touch: With a touch, the sorcerer can soothe a target’s pain, allowing them to ignore wound penalties, or place them into a deep and soothing sleep.
    • Both powers work with the same system.
    • One Willpower is spent in addition to the Spell Point cost.
    • Touch the target and roll Willpower. If the target is willing, the successes rolled indicate the number of turns the target can ignore wound penalties during combat, or 10 minutes per success outside of combat. For sleep, the target will sleep for 1 hour per success, regaining 1 temporary Willpower per hour slept.
    • If the target is unwilling, +3 Difficulty
  • 3 – Corpore Sano: Healing with but a touch.
    • Must touch the target at the site of the injury.
    • Can only heal 1 health level per turn, but can maintain contact as long as desired after the first touch, without a separate activation roll.
    • In addition to the normal spell point costs to activate the spell, 2 spell points are spent per level of damage.
  • 3 – Burning Touch: The character’s hands burn like red-hot metal. This does no actual damage, but prolonged or repeated exposure is tortuous.
    • Touch is required, and the effect diminishes rapidly after contact is lost.
    • For each spell point expended while maintaining contact, the target loses 2 dice from all pools while any physical contact is maintained.
  • 3 – Shepherd’s Watch: Creates a protective barrier around the priest and those under her protection.
    • In addition to the normal activation costs, the caster must expend 2 Willpower.
    • No one intending harm can come within 3 foundations of the priest, except those under her protection.
    • Those under the priest’s protection can come and go within the boundary.
    • Those not protected by this shield can attempt to enter, but must defeat the caster at a contested Willpower roll, amassing 3 successes more than the priest. This battle of wills can continue over multiple turns until the attacker gives up or accrues 3 more successes than the priest.  Once the shield is breached, it collapses.
    • The priest can move around at a walking speed, and the shield will follow around them.
  • 4 – Armor of Fury: Creates a shining, golden halo around the priest’s head, granting protection from physical injury.
    • Roll Stamina + Melee.
    • Each success grants magical armor, which gives +1 Soak for the remainder of the scene/combat.
  • 5 – Mens Sana: This power removes mental or social flaws, derangements, or restores lost Willpower.
    • In addition to the base activation cost, two additional spell points must be spent.
    • The priest spends 10 minutes in conversation, encouraging the target to speak about their ails and offering them peace.
    • Roll Empathy at +1 Difficulty. Success will cure the target of 1 mental or social flaw or derangement of the priest’s choice for 1 day per success, or restore 1 Willpower per success.
  • 5 – Kiss of Death: The priest strikes her foe with superhuman accuracy and strength. While this power is active, the priest’s left half withers and becomes corpse-like as Derketo guides her hands.
    • Your next hand-to-hand or melee weapon attack automatically hits.
    • This attack cannot be dodged, though it can be blocked, parried, or soaked as normal.
    • It strikes as though you achieved full success on Dexterity + Brawl or Dexterity + Melee, which may grant significant bonus damage.
    • Can only be used once per turn.
• * Jhebbal Sag:  Animalism, V20, pg128
• * Mitra:
  • 1- Song of Mending: By humming a reverent tune, singing Mitra’s praises, or similar veneration such as ringing a bell, the priest is able to heal her flock.
    • Can reach multiple targets within earshot or a single target in earshot.
    • Normal activation costs + 1 Willpower for a single target, or 3 additionally Spell Points + 1 Willpower per target for a group activation.
    • Each additional Spell Point spent heals 1 level of damage for the target(s).
  • 1 – 5 Healing:  Path of Healing, WoD:Sorcerer, pg 103
• * Set: Serpentis, V20, pg209
• * Ymir: Path of Mars, V20, pg224
• * Zath: Dementation, V20, pg147

Sorcery Paths:

• Body Control:
  • All of the spells for this path use Stamina + Meditation for an activation roll.

    1. Self Control: Mage enters a trance state. Remains peripherally aware of their surroundings, but can do nothing else but focus on their body. Can stop bleeding, ignore pain, or hold breath until concentration is surrendered or broken. A single success allows the mage to enter this trance-like state.
    2. Self-Healing: Each success reduces healing times by 1 wound degree. The mage needs to remain at rest during this healing time, but by activating this spell, their successes in the magical healing process can greatly accelerate the rate at which they recover their injuries.
    3. Hysterical Strength: The mage controls their adrenal glands. Every 2 successes equals an extra die of Strength, Dexterity, or Stamina up to a maximum of 6, for the remainder of the scene. At the end of the scene, these added dice are rolled as if soaking damage. For each point failed to soak, the character is exhausted for an hour as they come down off the adrenal rush.
    4. Ignore Pain Response: Each success on the dice is one level of wounds able to be ignored for the scene. At the end of the scene, wound modifiers return, but until then? Berserkers gon’ berserk.
    5. Mind Over Matter: The character’s control over their body is complete. At will, they can stop their own heart, suspend the need for oxygen, regulate their digestion, control their immune system, accelerate, or suppress cell growth, regeneration, and processing. In effect, the mage can direct their body to consciously perform feats of biology almost as if their cells respond individually to their will. Toxins can be nullified with a 1 for 1 success to counter the successes of the poisons at work, almost any disease can be snuffed out an shrugged off with an extended cast, and with pain control (above) they are able to distort and stretch and bend their body in all manner of unnatural ways to slip loose of bonds. Effects of injuries can be isolated to specific parts of the body, and with a moment to prepare to face trauma, the mage can even soak aggravated damage.

• * Cursing:
• * Divination:
• * Ephemera:
• * Fascination:
• * Hands of Destruction:
• * Path of Elemental Mastery:

Vampire Disciplines:

• * Auspex: V20, pg 134
• * Celerity: V20, pg 142
• * Dominate: V20, pg 151
• * Fortitude: V20, pg 158
• * Potence: V20, pg 192
• * Presence:V20, pg 193
• * Protean:V20, pg 199

Shifter Gifts:

• * Human:
  1. Master of Fire
  2. Apecraft’s Blessing
  3. Staredown
  4. Calm the Savage Beast
  5. Spirit Ward
• * Warbeast:
  1. Create Element
  2. Shed
  3. Curse of Hatred
  4. Mental Speech
  5. Gift of the Porcupine
• * Wolf:
  1. Heightened Senses
  2. Predator’s Arsenal
  3. Prey Mind
  4. Catfeet
  5. Strength of Gaia
• * Rage:
  1. Falling Touch
  2. Spirit of the Fray
  3. True Fear
  4. Song of Rage
  5. Razor Claws
• * Gnosis:
  1. Brother’s Scent
  2. Mother’s Touch
  3. Luna’s Armor
  4. Sense Balance
  5. Exorcism
• * Honor:
  1. Mercy
  2. Truth of Gaia
  3. Para Bellum
  4. Song of Heroes
  5. Merciful Blow
• * Glory:
  1. Seizing the Edge
  2. Command the Gathering
  3. Distractions
  4. Wrath of Gaia
  5. Combat Healing
• * Wisdom:
  1. Beast Speech
  2. Pulse of the Prey
  3. Heart of Rage
  4. Resist Temptation
  5. Preternatural Awareness

Perks:

Perks are that extra little special “something,” which serve to make your characters more unique and special. These perks unlock unique abilities, describe the various weaknesses that your character lives with and have to overcome in their daily lives, their faith, and possibly even their secret lives as non-humans. Players can select sorcery, 1 faith perk, and 1 outsider perk. No more than 7 points of Flaws can be purchased. Players can purchase as many points of merits as they have perk points to be able to afford at character creation. Perks cannot be purchased with XP, and are instead gained over the course of roleplay. If you would like for your character earn a new particular perk, it’s often helpful to discuss this with a storyteller to decide if and how a perk can be gained, and to discuss any additional costs.

• Sorcery:
• Faith:
• Outsiders:
• Merits:
  • Physical:
    • Acute Senses (3): Your senses are exceptionally sharp. Your difficulties for all Perception-related rolls are decreased by 1.
    • Alcohol Tolerance (1): With a successful Stamina roll (difficulty 3), you can shake off the effects of intoxication, suffering no coordination penalties that might normally affect a drunken fighter. This Merit works against all natural intoxicants, even if processed (Lotus Powder), though not against poisons or entirely man-made chemical drugs (such as Berserker Draught.)
    • Ambidextrous (1): You have a high degree of off-hand dexterity and can perform tasks with your “wrong” hand with no penalty. The rules for taking multiple actions still apply, but you do not suffer a difficulty penalty if you use two tools or weapons or are forced to use your off-hand to perform a task.
    • Bad Taste (2): You are gamey to the palate and revolting to the taste buds; plainly put, you taste nasty. Anyone who bites you is nauseated. The biter must spend a Willpower point or retch uncontrollably for 10 minutes or until the end of the scene. The drawback is that even affectionate gestures like licks or nibbles are affected by your decidedly foul flavor.
    • Bruiser (1): Your appearance is sufficiently thug-like to inspire fear or disgust in those who see you. While you’re not ugly, per se, you do radiate a quiet menace to the point that people tend to avoid you. All Intimidation rolls against anyone who has not demonstrated their physical superiority to you are at a -1 difficulty.
  • Mental:
  • Social:
  • Supernatural:
  • Shifter:
  • Sorcerer:
  • Vampire:
• Flaws:
  • Physical:
  • Mental:
  • Social:
  • Supernatural:
  • Shifter:
  • Sorcerer:
  • Vampire: