CGEN: Generation Costs
Generation is always a dicey subject on any MUSH, owing to the tendency to both obsess over it (both ICly and OOCly), and to the perceived economies of maxing it out in CGEN. There are various ways to handle it – and in my opinion, treating it too arbitrarily or freely has an equal capacity to hurt a sphere’s immersion.
Here is how Generation will work on LiberationMUSH:
- Any character can purchase Generation in chargen, on a sliding scale of costs, so as to allow people to realize a whole spectrum of different origins for their characters, without feeling as if they are either min-maxing or handicapping themselves. Generation costs are cumulative, and are as follows:
Generation 1 (12th gen): May be purchased with either 1 Background point, or 1 Freebie point.
Generation 1 -> 2 (11th gen): This costs 2 Freebie points.
Generation 2 -> 3 (10th gen): This costs 3 Freebie points.
Generation 3 -> 4 (9th gen): This costs 4 Freebie points. Neonate characters will require a special reasoning for why their Generation is so low, which might necessitate being paired with certain Flaws (such as Diablerie streaks), but which you’ll still receive the usual credit for.
Generation 4 -> 5 (8th gen): This costs 5 Freebie points. The same restrictions as before, though somewhat more scrutinized.
- You cannot increase Generation with XP during play. You can only increase it via Diablerie, which will be judged as usual. This increase is free, and there may be other benefits of Diablerie besides. Although, there are of course, many risks as well. Diablerie is handled exactly as written in the 20th Edition rulebook.
- If you Embrace a Childe during play, they are not required to buy the Generation Background. It is simply set to one beneath their Sire’s.
Out of Clan Disciplines
There are five methods to acquire Out of Clan Disciplines:
1) Ask for and explain it in CGEN. If you’re asking for a ‘rare’ discipline, like Vicissitude or Obtenebration as a Camarilla Toreador, it will almost certainly be denied. If you’re a Camarilla Toreador asking for Potence, Fortitude or even something that you’d have easy access to, like Dementation from a Camarilla Malkavian, it will almost certainly be approved.
2) Physical Disciplines (Celerity, Potence, Fortitude) do not require teachers in play. Most any vampire with any common sense can eventually figure these out with enough time and experimentation.
3) Most other ‘common’ Disciplines, such as Auspex, Obfuscate, Presence and Dominate, merely require that someone gives you the basic idea of it once. It doesn’t actually take that long. Provided you have the Experience, a ‘teacher’ could teach the level 1 basics of these Disciplines in a couple nights. You can then figure out the rest yourself, after that. A Brujah who is taught Dominate 1, won’t need a teacher to raise it thereafter.
4) Rare, /Clan-specific/ Disciplines (like Dementation, Protean, Obtenebration, Vicissitude, Serpentis, the usual) and Blood Magic require both tasting the Blood of someone possessing those Disciplines, and being taught by them. This is actually a very lengthy process. And they’ll need to teach you every level that you acquire thereafter. (So Obtenebration 0 -> 1 will require a teacher with that level, and 1 -> 2 will also require a teacher). But you only need to taste the Blood once. This is much more arduous, but has been known to happen, especially in the case of significant debts.
IMPORTANT: A PC teacher must have an Instruction Ability equal to the level of Rare Discipline/Blood Magic Path etc that they are trying to teach.
Some very rare Clan Disciplines simply cannot be taught, like Gargoyle Flight. These should be obvious. But I’ll eventually make a definitive list, anyways.
5) Diablerie. Diablerie works more or less just like it’s written in 20th Edition. And it works just about the same way you think it works. Although obviously, Diablerie comes with risks of its own. You cannot diablerize NPCs in PRPs. Since for the most part, only Directors or Producers are allowed to portray NPC vampires, just like in a tabletop game. (If you have a burning desire to run Vampire NPCs, please think about contributing as a Producer, instead).
Hive-Minded Merit (Gangrel Only)
Hive-Minded (1-5 pt Merit)
For one point, your Animalism works on insects and other creepy-crawlies in addition to mammalian animals.
If you select the two-point version of this merit, your Protean 'bat' form may take the form of an insectoid swarm roughly 2 yards in diameter, rather than a single creature.
* The base physical attributes are equivalent to your 'bat' form. Combat is resolved as per the rules for 'Swarms' in combat (See V20 core, page 391 'Packs and Swarms').
* Your base damage as per Swarm combat is your Bat form Strength (1) + half of your Brawl rating, rounded up. You benefit from Fortitude while in Swarm form, but no other Physical Discipline.
* For Hive-Minded 3-5: You may benefit from one additional dot of Celerity and/or Potence while in Swarm form, and your Swarm's 'extent' increases by 1 yard radius.
All Vampires can potentially drain Blood while in 'swarm' form. Just as they could while as a bat or a wolf. Although it typically requires a successfully damaging attack and is limited to one Blood per round, and does not benefit from the Kiss.Presence 3 (Entrancement)
Entrancement is the level 3 power associated with the Vampire Discipline of Presence. It is written in a way that makes characters who possess Entrancement OOCly afraid of using it, owing to the excessive duration of the time given, vs the nature of the passage of time on a MUSH, and the OOC taboo associated with either inflicting it, or laboring underneath it. In short, it is a perfect example of a power that works fine on tabletop when dealing with NPCs, but it needs a bit more tweaking for a MUSH (or a LARP, etc).
System: The player spends a blood point and rolls Appearance + Empathy (difficulty equal to the target’s CURRENT Willpower points); the number of successes determine the length and intensity of the subject’s Entrancement.
NOTE: As with all Presence powers, any character who either has a strong IC motivation, or realizes that they’re being supernaturally toyed with, may spend a Willpower point, and then roll Willpower vs 8, with a success allowing them to ignore it for a scene. It also automatically lowers the Presence wielder’s successes by one. If you resist until a Presence power’s successes are entirely cancelled out, it goes away completely. Botching a Presence roll forbids you from using that same power against the same individual for the rest of the ‘story’ (roughly two RL weeks). Failing, prevents you from using it again for the rest of the ‘night’.
Successful use of Entrancement bends other’s emotions, making them more pliant, and more likely to be the vampire’s willing servants. Unlike those who have been enslaved with a three step Blood Bond or Dominated, the subjects retain their creativity and individuality. Which is to say that it’s a much more gentle form of coercion than the mind-chaining slavery of the Blood or ego-crushing Domination. It certainly makes for a more entertaining entourage.
You must apply Successes to the following, independent charts (min 1 success each):
DURATION: 1 Success (One hour), 2 successes (one night), 3 successes (one week), 4 successes (one month), 5 successes+ (three months, +1 month for each additional success).
INTENSITY: 1-4 successes (-1 diff or +1 dice to all Social interactions per success, at the Vampire’s choice), 5+ successes (true, unwavering devotion, of the kind that is better roleplayed in a collaborative process rather than diced out).
You cannot make this an Extended Roll, but you /will/ have an IC notion of how long it’ll last and how intense it is.
There are two other caveats. First, if a vampire abuses, /flagrantly/ cruelly deceives or puts an Entranced subject in danger, they may shake off the entirety of the effect by spending a single Willpower point. They may not be Entranced again for the rest of the story.
Secondly, if a vampire is careful to play up to the Entranced subject’s expectations (and that is more than anything else, the art of empathy and performance such as Presence revolves around), they will often find that what was supernaturally inspired devotion, will quite easily transition into sincere affection. There will /not/ be a point, (absent supernatural powers or knowledge to the contrary) where the average target abruptly realizes they’ve been supernaturally manipulated. Which means that Entrancement is quite safe to use in the majority of circumstances, provided the wielder exercises a modicum of grace and common sense.
It is however, never perfectly safe to use Entrancement on other supernatural creatures. Elders might toy with fledglings and childer, twisting and bending their minds and emotions with Dominate and Presence, yet it usually results in a Frenzy check between peers and rivals.
FINALLY AND IMPORTANTLY: This House Rule only applies in its strictest sense to supernatural PCs, supernatural NPCs and mortal PCs.
If Entrancement is used against a mortal NPC, or any character who has at least a 1-step Blood Bond to you, the intensity automatically counts as 5+. As such, you only need allocate successes to Duration.
You do not need to create a PvP job for Entrancing someone, unless it involves a hostile, rival PC. In all other circumstances, I encourage you to RP it out in a spirit of collaboration and mutual amusement. You are however, under no obligation to RP out the result. If someone Dominates or seduces you into eating a ham sandwich, and you, OOCly, are disgusted by ham sandwiches, you may OOCly request to fade forward to a point in the RP where ham sandwich eating is no longer the focus. Although ICA=ICC here, players may request handwaved off-screen arbitration from a Director at any time, for any reason.
Ventrue Clan Weakness
- Every Ventrue PC chooses one type of vessel that they prefer above all others (actresses, transients, nobility, etc). They may drink from such prey as normal.
- Ventrue must drink 2 blood points to replenish their blood pool by 1 when drinking from any other human vessel. Additionally, they may never ‘fill’ the last point of their blood pool from such lesser vintage.
- Ventrue PCs take no sustenance from animals of any kind.
- As ever, Ventrue still replenish blood from feeding on other Vampires or supernatural creatures as normal.
Infertile Vitae Flaw
Infertile Vitae (5 pt. flaw)
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.
Prerequisite: Only Vampires of the 11th, 12th or 13th Generation may take this flaw. Although far more common in the 21st century than ever before, it still carries with it a slight whiff of social stigma should it become publicly known.Dominate vs Generation
- You cannot Dominate a vampire who you have a Blood Bond towards, and who has a lower Generation than you. This means that Childer usually cannot Dominate their Sires (since a Childe begins unlife as both one step blood bound and one Generation higher than their Sire).
- You cannot Dominate a vampire who has you in thrall (a three step blood bond).
- A vampire of the 14th-16th Generation cannot Dominate a vampire of the 13th Generation or below.
- A vampire of the 8th-13th Generation cannot Dominate a vampire of the 7th Generation or below.
- When a vampire of the 8th-13th Generation attempts to Dominate another vampire of the 8th-13th Generation, the difficulty of the attempt increases by +1 for every Generation that the target is higher than the Dominator.
- For example: An 11th-Generation vampire trying to Dominate a 9th Generation vampire with Willpower 6, will roll their Dominate against a difficulty of 8.
- For example: An 11th-Generation vampire trying to Dominate a 9th Generation vampire with Willpower 6, will roll their Dominate against a difficulty of 8.
- Please see the sidebar on page 158 of the V20 Corebook ‘Resisting Dominate’. All potential modifiers apply here as well. It is also the main reason that I’ve chosen to treat the interactions of Vampires 8th-13th as more fluid rather than purely binary. It also helps out in situations akin to (Wait. She’s 11th, and I’m only 12th? I guess I’ll just have to kill her to keep her quiet, instead!).
Humanity XP Spends
- Raising Humanity to higher than you came in with from chargen (i.e., an original Humanity 6 Vampire going to Humanity 7) costs its usual CR * 2 in XP.
- If there is a particularly profound reason attached, i.e., ‘She taught me how to love again!’, then I’ll give a 1-2 XP discount.
- If there is a particularly profound reason attached, i.e., ‘She taught me how to love again!’, then I’ll give a 1-2 XP discount.
- Raising Humanity that you have lost since chargenning into the game, also costs CR * 2 in XP.
- However. For every scene that you spend wrestling with the implications of your lost Humanity, and trying to find your back to grace, I’ll let you deduct 1 XP from the cost, to a minimum of CR * 1 in XP.
- However. For every scene that you spend wrestling with the implications of your lost Humanity, and trying to find your back to grace, I’ll let you deduct 1 XP from the cost, to a minimum of CR * 1 in XP.
- This is only relevant to Humanity.
Torpor Times
GETTING TORPORED:
- A vampire character is sent into ‘hard’ torpor if they take take enough lethal damage to send them past Incapacitated on the damage chart. Getting beheaded or subjected to extreme physical damage (such as being woodchippered or torn apart) still results in Final Death.
- This kind of torporing from wounds is associated with the long-term dormant period.
- This kind of torporing from wounds is associated with the long-term dormant period.
- A vampire character is sent into ‘light’ torpor if their unable to pay 1 blood point to wake up.
- Being fed a blood point is sufficient to wake a vampire in ‘light’ torpor. Otherwise, they’ll eventually deteriorate into a desiccated corpse (See ‘Deterioration’, V20 p 293).
- Being fed a blood point is sufficient to wake a vampire in ‘light’ torpor. Otherwise, they’ll eventually deteriorate into a desiccated corpse (See ‘Deterioration’, V20 p 293).
- Being staked is a form of torpor.
- The torpor typically ends when the stake is removed. A staked vampire is conscious of what is happening around them, unless they were staked while Incapacitated. If they were Incapacitated, then the ST decides what they perceive (if anything).
- Staked vampires are still subject to Deterioration (See ‘Deterioration’, V20 p 293).
RECOVERING FROM TORPOR:
- Vampires who enter torpor due to wounds must rest for a period depending on their Humanity or Path rating. This is IC time, and so does not fully correspond to RL time. For example, I will often allow PCs to treat an IC week as equivalent to roughly 5-6 RL days, without much concern. It is situation dependent.
Humanity/Path 9+: One day
Humanity/Path 8: Three days
Humanity/Path 6-7: One week
Humanity/Path 4-5: One month
Humanity/Path 2-3: One year
Humanity/Path 0-1: Storyteller’s discretion
- A torpored vampire character may spend 1 dot of permanent Willpower to move their current torpor time into the next highest category.
- Following this period of ‘rest’, the player may spend a blood point and make an Awakening roll (see ‘Awakening’, V20 p. 262) for her character to rise. If the vampire has no blood in her body, she may not rise until she is fed. If the player fails the Awakening roll, she may spend another blood point and make an Awakening roll the following night. If the vampire rises successfully, she is considered Crippled and should either spend blood or hunt immediately.
- You may feed a torpored vampire by dribbling blood into their mouth as you would expect. However, for whatever mysterious reason, no vampire can be bonded more than a single step during the duration of their torpor (which seems, in some mystical sense, to count as a single ‘sleep’ for them, where that particular aspect of the Curse is considered).
Beta HR: Celerity Discipline
CELERITY
The ability to strike fast, dodge blows, and escape pursuers allows Kindred to become extremely effective predators. Celerity moves a vampire with unholy rapidity and grace while allowing them to think nearly as quickly as they can act. Characters with high Celerity move nigh-unseen in bursts of inhuman speed. This allows for remarkable performances, frightening quick assassinations and instant escapes.
System: Characters add their Celerity rating to their Dexterity-based dice pools, including their Initiative ratings. They also add their Celerity rating to the base number of yards or meters they can move in a turn.
In addition, characters can spend one blood point to ignore a number of penalized dice up to their Celerity rating, for each multiple action dice pool they roll that turn. Alternatively, they can instead multiply the distance they travel that round on foot by 1 + their Celerity rating.EXAMPLE #1: The Camarilla vampire known as Tina Toreador is locked in a life or death struggle with a Society of Leopold Inquisitor. She has Dexterity 3, Athletics 2 and Celerity 2. When the Inquisitor tries to stake her, she can roll her Dexterity + Athletics + Celerity to Dodge the attack (giving her a total of 7 dice).
-> If Tina Toreador were running away, her usual movement speed would be 20 + ( 3 x Dexterity rating + Celerity) yards/meters, or roughly 35 yards a round.
-> If Tina Toreador had spent a blood point, she could have instead moved 35 yards multiplied by her (1 + Celerity rating), or rather 35 x 3 = a blistering 105 yards in one round! This means that even a comparatively modest investment in Celerity (2 dots) could allow a Kindred to sprint the space of a football field in only a few seconds.
EXAMPLE #2: The Anarch vampire known as Billy Brujah is trying to grapple and bite his Sabbat opponent. He has Dexterity 3, Strength 3, Brawl 3, Potence 2 and Celerity 3. He spends a blood point at the start of the combat round while declaring a split action to both grapple and subsequently bite the Sabbat shovelhead. It is resolved in the following steps:
-> Your basic dice pool for a multiple action is the lowest dice pool out of all those that you’re using in the same round. In Billy Brujah’s case, he is trying to grapple (Strength 3 + Brawl 3 + Potence 2 = 8 dice) and bite (Dexterity 3 + Brawl 3 + Celerity 3 = 9 dice). Taking the lower of the two dice pools would give him 8 dice.
-> Billy Brujah must then divide those 8 dice between the grappling and the biting. He could allocate 4 to each, or 6 to the grapple and 2 to the bite, etc.
-> Let’s say Billy splits his dice pool, to roll 4 dice for grappling the Sabbat, and then 4 dice for biting.
-> However, because Billy spent a blood point on Celerity this round, he can ignore up to three penalized dice for each of his split actions. This means that his final dice pool is 7 for grappling, and 7 for biting. Not bad!
If Billy had split his dice as 6 for grappling and 2 for biting, his final dice pools would be 8 for grappling (as it only alleviates penalties – it does not add dice) and 5 for biting.
EXAMPLE #3: Celerity can facilitate taking both offensive and defensive actions at the same time. For example, a Kindred with Dexterity 3, Firearms 3, Athletics 3 and Celerity 4 is in a firefight with several fangbangers. Let’s say he wants to split his dice pool to fire three times (up to the rate of fire limit for his pistol) and Dodge two times in one round. This would ordinarily give him a dice pool of 2 for each shot (Because of the inherent +4 Dex bonus from Celerity 4), and for each Dodge attempt. However, with Celerity 4, he can instead instead make all five rolls at 6 dice (2 dice, with 4 penalized dice mitigated with Celerity 4, becomes a dice pool of 6).
New Combo Discipline: The Last Round
The Last Round (Potence 2, Presence 2) - 12 XPDescription: There’s many a vampire that has heard whispered rumors of Brujah elders demonstrating terrifying acts of supernatural might – such as throwing a pebble or even snapping one’s finger at a distant enemy and dropping them as if with a haymaker punch. Few (if any) of Los Angeles’ Rabble have ever seen such potency in action. ‘The Last Round’ is a trick developed by the legendary Brujah Anarch known as Armando ‘Nines’ Rodriguez, which was inspired by such tales (which he likely first heard from his mentor, Jeremy MacNeil). Contrary to popular belief, Nines did not get his nickname from the 9mm pistol that he supposedly carried into battle (he actually wielded a .50 cal Desert Eagle), yet this combination discipline is the source of those rumors.
System: A Brujah with ‘The Last Round’ may spend a blood point to add their Potence as automatic damage to a single gun shot. For whatever mysterious reason, it is only usable with one-handed, semi-auto firearms.
Restriction: This Combination Discipline was originally unique to the Anarch Free States. It can be taught to any Brujah however, and has in fact been witnessed at one time or another across North America by those who never even heard of Nines Rodriguez. It is only easily available to Anarch Brujah PCs who have spent time among the Free States. However, any Anarch Brujah PC who has it can teach it to any other Brujah PC, if they're so inclined.