Character Generation

 

General Guidelines:

 

This is a vampire game.  The game is being run based off of White Wolf’s Mind Eye and Vampire Requiem rules.   There are a lot of monsters that exist in the dark medieval world, vampires are far from the only ones.  But they are the focus of this game.  We are not averse to people playing Ghouls or Mortals, but the empahsis of the game is going to be Vampire and it's particular brand of horror. 

 

The game is going to focus on the dynamics that exist between the five clans: Daeva, Gangrel, Mekhat, Nosferatu and Ventrue.   There may very well be bloodlines in the mix, but they need to be part of the theme of the game.  Bloodlines that are predominately associated with covenants may not be appropriate, for example, as modren covenants are not in play.

 

For the most part, characters should be entered into Seneschal, our on-line database.  Characters can be stated and backgrounds can be entered there.  For a login and password to Seneschal, please email the ST staff at ca-storytellers "at" googlegroups "dot" com.

 

Characters should be stated using the starting vampire rules in Requiem.  In addition, characters start with 75 xp.  Additional xp will be available for those characters who are created before game and will be filling a role within the game.

 

There are a few changes to the base core stats in Requiem.  Most of those can be found in the Rome book, but a list of these can also be found below.

 

Skills

Religion

Characters possessing the Skill are educated in the proper rituals and ways of their specific religion, be in Christianity, Judaism, or Islam  This is not occult knowledge, but instead a familiarity with the widely available, and generally complicated, tales of religion and understanding of its proper practice.  It also comes with a general history of that religion, and allows the player to have some understanding (at a penalty) of religions other then his own.  Religion is used by Theban Sorcerers. 

 

Possessed by: clergy, artists, philosophers, scholars. 

Specialties include: Rituals, Symbols, Omens

 

Warfare

This Skill represents a character’s understanding, gained by education, experience, or just innate sense, of large-scale tactical maneuvers.  Warfare is useful when planning for a battle (to assign troops well, to read the lay of the land for potential advantages and trouble spots and to predict enemy maneuvers) and when attempting to read the flow of events during open conflict.  A character with a high rating in Warfare is unlikely to walk into a trap in battle, and is more likely to adopt the right response to a change in circumstances amidst the din and chaos of war.

 

Warfare does not just represent the ability to gain objectives in war – it is the ability to gain those objectives while incurring a minimum of losses on one’s side and inflicting a maximum of causalities on the enemy.  Any good solider can take an objective with overwhelming force.  It takes a great one to achieve the same goal with an underpowered force and avoid losing any subordinates in the process.

 

Possessed by: military officers, mercenaries, experienced criminals

Specialties include: ambushes, fields of fire, troop movement, supply lines

 

Archery

Archery allows a character to identify, maintain, and operate most types of bows and crossbows.  This Skill can represent formal military training or the familiarity born of experience in the field.  Note that dots in Archery do not apply to manually fixing for building bows or fletching arrows.   Construction and repair are the province of the Crafts skill.

 

Possessed by: criminals, mercenaries, hunters, soliders

Specialties include: bow, crossbow, long shot, trick shot

 

Ride

The Ride Skill allows a character to control and guide a mount under dangerous or difficult conditions.  Characters do not need this Skill to simply ride a horse, camel, or other mount.  Rather, this trait represents the training or experience necessary to maintain control at high speeds, to ride through dangerous environments without injuring the mount and to push the mount to the limits of its performance.  Note that dots in Ride do not apply to training a mount, only to riding one.  Taming and instruction of a mount are the province of the Animal Ken skill.

 

Possessed by: Noblemen, soldiers, nomads, mercenaries, farmers

Specialties include: dangerous conditions, pursuit, maintaining speed, stunts

 

Merits

The following Merits are considered “out of play” for this game, as they require modern technology or information that is not available in a dark medieval world: Fighting Style: Kung Fu, Gunslinger and Stunt Driver.

 

However, there are some merits from outside books that we will allow, depending on character and backstory: Fighting Style: Formation Tactics, Fighting Style: Archery, Stunt Rider, Noble Heritage, and Patron.  If you are interested in one of these merits and do not have the sources for them, please contact the ST’ers.

 

Disciplines

 

The following standard disciplines will be in play:

 

Common Disciplines: Animalism, Celerity, Resilience, Vigor and Obfuscate.  These are disciplines that can be purchased as out of clan disciplines provided the character would have a reason / teacher for them.

 

Hereditary Disciplines: Auspex (Mekhet), Dominate (Ventrue), Majesty (Deava), Nightmare (Nosferatu), Protean (Gangrel).  These disciplines can only be purchased by the Kindred for whom they are in-clan. 

 

Cruac: In this game, Cruac simply refers to the blood magic still practiced by various different types of blood cults.  A character with Cruac may still have faith in the Greek or Roman gods.  She may by a Gnostic mystic.  Where ever her faith lies, or whomever taught her the rituals, will effect what sort of rituals she has access to and how they are preformed.  A Gnostic mystic and a Pagan may know the same ritual, but their way of practicing that ritual would be so alien to each other that they wouldn’t recognize it.  As such, the Pagan can not teach her blood magic to the Mystic.  It is dependant on faith.

 

Simply belonging to a blood cult is not enough to know Cruac.  Practitioners of this type of magic have bee hunted down across Europe for centuries now, it is practiced in secret by those strong enough to hold on to their beliefs.  The character must have a Kindred who has mentored and taught them this power.  And they must be prepared for the deadly backlash that might come if they are caught preparing a ritual. 

 

Theban Sorcery: The magic of the Lancea et Sanctum, as discovered by the Mekhat of Thebes, is a potent force in the hands of the believers.  It is strange and unreliable, drawing from the will of the user and manifesting in response to the fervent entreaty of the user.  It is also much less discriminating then the magic practiced by blood cultists, all you need to call upon its “miracles” is believe strongly enough to exhaust yourself.  While a Kindred does not have to be a member of the Lancea to have Theban Sorcery, anyone who practices the art who is not a member of the Order is likely to find themselves on the wrong end of the Spear.

 

One can not know both Cruac and Theban Sorcery.  They are magical belief systems that are at odds with each other.