Attributes, Abilities & Specialties

Attributes

Strength	Charisma	Perception
Dexterity	Manipulation	Intelligence
Stamina	Appearance	Wits

Abilities

Alertness	Animal Ken	Academics
Athletics	Crafts1	Bureaucracy2
Awareness	Drive	Computer2
Brawl	Etiquette	Cosmology
Empathy	Firearms	Enigmas
Expression	Larceny	Finance2
Intimidation	Melee	Gremayre
Kenning	Performance1	Investigation
Leadership	Security	Law2
Primal-Urge	Survival	Medicine2
Stealth	Technology	Occult
Streetwise		Politics
Subterfuge		Rituals
		Science2

Secondary Abilities

• There is no overlap between Abilities and Secondary Abilities (i.e., Seduction is always used to seduce, not Subterfuge.) They also cost the same, both in Experience during play, and in Freebies during Chargen, as regular Abilities.
• They are only separated into a Secondary list to give players a better grasp of which Abilities have a more niche functionality (indeed, some like Intrigue or Networking are virtually never rolled in play – just handled behind the scenes in jobs or during downtime).

Artistry1	Acrobatics	Area Knowledge1
Blatancy	Archery	Covert Ops2
Cooking	Demolitions2	Cryptography2
Diplomacy	Elusion	Esoterica1
Fortune Telling3	Energy Weapons3	Forecasting3
High Ritual1	Fencing3	Herbalism
Instruction	Gambling	Media
Intrigue	Hypertech3	Military Science2
Intuition	Martial Arts3	Poisons
Lucid Dreaming	Meditation	Power-Brokering
Scrounging	Microgravity Ops2	RD Data
Seduction	Networking	Subdimensions
Style	Pilot1	Vice

Specialties

• Specialties provide a character with +1 success for every result of a ’10’ when rolling a specialized dice pool. They also sometimes unlock additional functionality for certain Abilities.
  • A few rare Specialties that gatekeep major gameplay mechanics (like Athletic’s Flying, or Firearm’s Heavy Weapons) do not benefit from the extra successes. They provide enough benefit by making such things possible in the first place.
• Specialties only apply to Abilities (Attributes never have specialties), and can be taken at any time. They are not automatically granted at the 4th dot in an Ability, as in past editions.
• Specialties cost 1 freebie when taken in chargen. They cost 10 XP in play.
• Some Abilities give a free, mandatory specialty at level 1 (Such as Artistry, Crafts and Esoterica, etc). Non-specialized use of these Abilities are considered untrained.

Strength

Dexterity

Stamina

Charisma

Manipulation

Appearance

Perception

Intelligence

Wits

ALERTNESS

Description: This is your basic knack for noticing things that go on around you, even when you’re not actively looking for them, and is usually paired with Perception. This Ability helps characters with keen instincts and sharp thinking to size up situations and respond accordingly.

Allowed Specialties: Scan, Search

Rules: The sum total of your Perception + Alertness ratings is usually used to set the base difficulty for someone who is trying to sneak by, ambush or steal something from you, with only one success required for them to succeed. If you have a reason to be particularly cautious (such as standing guard or in a dangerous situation), then Perception + Alertness is typically rolled as part of a contested action, with your successes subtracting from your opponent’s. In such a situation, the storyteller will set the relative difficulties, based on circumstantial factors – it is harder to spot someone at night or in a crowded subway terminal.

There are many supernatural powers (such as a Vampire’s Auspex or Werewolf’s predatory senses) that greatly modify the difficulty of Alertness rolls.

• If you possess the Scan specialty, then you can roll Alertness actively to gain additional information. The truly perceptive might catch tell-tale hints that betray illusions or reveal hidden things. (Note: All Shifters can automatically do this with Primal-Urge.)

Obvious cue or clue: Difficulty 5
Subtle cue or clue: Difficulty 7
Extremely subtle cue or clue: Difficulty 9

• If you possess the Search specialty, then you can also roll Alertness actively, including for tracking and hunting purposes. However, when tracking someone, you cannot roll more Alertness dice than your Streetwise or Survival rating, depending on whether you’re in an urban or rural environment.

Poorly hidden prey, enemy, trail, or item: Difficulty 5
Well-concealed prey, enemy, trail or item: Difficulty 7
Magically concealed prey, enemy, trail or item: Difficulty 9

Story Example #1: “You’re distracted by conversation with a friend at a night club, while a creep tries to slip something into your momentarily unattended drink. They must roll vs a base difficulty determined by your Perception + Alertness ratings and score at least one success to do so without you noticing.”

Story Example #2: “You chased a suspect down a dark alley, where you suspect they’re laying in wait for you. Roll your Perception + Alertness vs their Wits + Stealth in a contested action, to see if you can suss out their likely hiding place to avoid getting bricked in the head.”

Story Example #3: “A Society of Leopold hunter with the Search specialty attempts to pursue a fleeing, Obfuscated vampire through the rain – requiring a Perception + Alertness roll vs a difficulty of 9 to notice the telltale puddle splashes.”

ATHLETICS

Description: Athletics covers basic physical fitness and coordination, along with any formal training in sports or other physical endeavors, such as lifting, climbing, jumping, swimming and throwing – even flying, if the character possesses wings. A character with high Athletics might be a trained athlete or a naturally rugged individual (such as many supernatural creatures).

Allowed Specialties: Biking, Climbing, Flying, Jumping, Lifting, Parkour, Running, Swimming, Throwing, (Specific Sport)

Rules: Assuming there are potential handholds, any character can climb trees, cliffs, walls and so forth. Doing so requires one or more rolls using Dexterity + Athletics. The roll’s difficulty depends on the surface and condition of the climb. A simple chain link fence might be difficulty 5 or 6 (depending on how flimsy it was), whereas a mostly sheer surface, or anti-climb barbed wire fencing might be difficulty 10.

• A dedicated cyclist might take the Biking specialty, which allows them to add the sum of their Dexterity and Stamina to the final result of their Safe and Max Speeds. (e.g., a character riding a mountain bike with Dexterity 3, Stamina 3 and Athletics 3 would have a Safe Speed of 15 and a Max Speed of 30.)

Vehicle	Safe Speed	Max. Speed	Maneuver	Durability	Structure
Mountain Bike	3 x Athletics	8 x Athletics	5	2	4
Racing Bike	4 x Athletics	10 x Athletics	6	2	3

• In order to scale truly great heights, a character requires the Climbing specialty to make use of advanced climbing technique and special equipment, which can potentially turn even a seemingly suicidal ascent into a more methodical, endurance-based feat.
  
  
• The Flying specialty allows you to roll Athletics to perform aerial maneuvers – provided you have wings, (thus typically restricting this specialty to creatures like Corax, or Mages with extremely strange Life rotes).
  • The Flying specialty doesn’t benefit from double successes – it’s a prerequisite to even be allowed to fly at all.
    
    
• The Jumping specialty allows normal characters (usually mortals) to add their Athletics ability to the Strength pool when attempting running leaps. Otherwise, a non-Olympian mortal has a negligible vertical clearance, although a ST might choose to let them spend a Willpower in particularly dramatic circumstances. (See +explain Strength for more on jumping).
  
  
• A character with the Lifting specialty is considered a power lifter, and may add half their Athletics, rounded up, to their Lift capacity on the Strength chart. (See +explain Strength). This only applies to prepared and controlled feats of weight lifting (not throwing motorcycles or such).
  
  
• The Running specialty allows a character to attempt the ‘long run’ of the Kalahari Bushmen or modern marathon run. (See +explain Stamina for endurance running mechanics).
  
  
• The Parkour specialty bonus may be applied to Pursuit rolls (both chasing and escaping), if taking place amidst suitably urban terrain. (See +explain Stamina for pursuit mechanics).
  
  
• While anyone with at least 1 dot of Athletics is considered coordinated enough to not drown themselves in a swimming pool, the Swimming specialty is required for moving faster in the water than a Golden Retriever, utilizing specific diving techniques or scuba equipment, or surviving getting tossed overboard in a stormy sea without a life jacket. Characters can typically swim 4 + their Dexterity rating in yards per turn. A trained swimmer can add their Athletics rating to this, and make Stamina rolls to potentially double this speed over short (yet exhausting) distances.
  
  
• The Throwing specialty is required for throwing weapons (or really anything) in combat without penalty. Although there is still a penalty for throwing weapons that were not intended to be thrown.
  
  
• You may take a specialty in a (Specific Sport), if your character is a professional athlete or Olympian. When engaged in a strictly ‘by the rules’ competition, non-specialized participants do not get to add their Athletics to contested rolls with you. They may still add their Athletics as normal when contesting other, non-specialized opponents, even in official competition.

AWARENESS

Description: Awareness is an instinctual reaction to the presence of the supernatural. It differs from Alertness which measures sensitivity to mundane events. Characters with Awareness sometimes get hunches, chills, or sudden flashes of inspiration when they are near supernatural creatures, objects, or events. This insight is purely subconscious, and knowing that something’s wrong doesn’t mean that the character knows what it is. To get more specific information, the character will need to use an ability like Esoterica or a particular power.

Allowed Specialties: Malkavian Time

Rules: Mages are exceptionally sensitive to Awareness-related phenomena. In game terms, you can roll Perception + Awareness to spot paranormal effects, detect magick, recognize Resonance Echoes, and so forth, assuming they’re within close proximity of you. The more successes you roll, the more detailed your impressions become. At 3 dots, a Mage can even use Awareness to perceive Auras. For a reference chart of aura colors and textures, see (M20 Core, Chapter 10, pg 507).

At the Storyteller’s discretion, a Vampire Blood Mage might roll Awareness actively to detect specific phenomena, although what they learn will be highly dependent on their Occult or Esoterica. Mortal+ and True Faith characters may only benefit passively from Awareness.

A character does not always require an Awareness roll to sense or defend from powers. A Mage for example, could set up a Time Ward in advance to protect an entire location from being chronally tampered with, or at least warn them of it. Otherwise, refer to the following guidelines:

• If a power goes through the trouble of specifically describing its own unique mechanics for being detected or not, then that takes precedence over Awareness. You do not get both. For example, if you were to fail a contested Auspex vs Obfuscate challenge, you wouldn’t get to roll Awareness after.
  
  
• As a general rule, both Vampires and Mages have a good chance of sensing powers used directly upon them, that correlates to powers that they personally possess. A Ventrue Primogen who mastered Presence will probably notice when the Toreador debutante supernaturally manipulates his attractions. Likewise, a Mage with at least 1 dot in the same Sphere as the effect being used on them, is likely to recognize it as well. In such events, the Storyteller can ask for a simple Perception + Awareness roll vs 4.
  
  
• If the same effect as above is instead happening in their near vicinity (such as a subtle use of Dominate being applied to a nearby ghoul servant by a visiting Elder within the same room), and they can see the source of it, then a Mage or Vampire can roll at Difficulty 6 to recognize the effect, same as above.
  
  
• If the effect is taking place farther away than one’s near vicinity, then instinctual Awareness ceases to be reliable. The Storyteller might ask for an occasional roll for narrative purposes, or in response to a particularly powerful magickal event, but the results are entirely restricted to ‘Something Happened’.
  
  
• If you don’t possess a power that correlates to the one being used on or near you, then the difficulty to detect is increased by +2. (For example, a Vampire without Dominate is less likely to realize they’re being Dominated).
  
  
• If you can’t see the source of the magickal effect, then the difficulty to detect it being used on you is increased by +2, (Such as being Scryed from a great distance).
  
  
• If you are a supernatural creature that belongs to a different supernatural race, then all Awareness difficulties are increased by +2. It is largely up to the Storyteller if your powers correlate or not. A Mage with Mind 1 sensing Dominate is a fairly easy call, but it can get more complicated. If there’s no agreement, then simply apply an extra +1 difficulty and leave it at that.
  
  
• If you manage between 1-4 successes, you are entitled to no more information than a quick headsup, as to something happening, and whether it roughly correlates to a power that you also possess. Thus, most of the time, characters will have to content themselves with realizing ‘Something hinky just happened!’ and use that to inform their next action.
  
  
• If you manage 5+ successes, then the Storyteller should give you as much information as your Knowledges reasonably supports. In addition, you’ll know for sure where the power is emanating from, if you can see them. If you can’t see them, then you’ll still have a very vague idea of distance. It does not explicitly identify perpetrators or even reveal them if you can’t already see them.
  
  
• Garou substitute Primal-Urge for Awareness and Changelings substitute Kenning. However, they must still abide by the above rules, thus requiring Garou, for example, to have Gifts that are vaguely similar to the Discipline being used on them, to have a chance of sensing it. Such as a gift like Persuasion giving you a chance to discern when you’re being supernaturally awed or entranced by Presence.
  
  
• In the end, ‘tabletop common sense’ applies. The above are very strong guidelines yet Directors will always err on the side of common sense and playability.

BRAWL

Description: Brawl represents a blend of the character’s natural talent, will, and training to hurt someone using nothing more than cunning and animal ferocity. It is a fundamental Ability utilized in close combat to punch, kick, bite and block that haymaker being thrown at your head.

Allowed Specialties: Dirty Fighting, Enforcer, Feral, Kicking, Punching, Stalker, Wrestling

Rules: For an explanation of the allowed Specialties, see below. Some combat maneuvers can only be used by those with the appropriate specialty. Those granted maneuvers also benefit from the usual specialty bonus.

• Dirty Fighting gives access to the Blinding, Curbstomp, Head Butt and Low Blow maneuvers.
  
  
• Enforcer gives access to the Jab Pistol and Pistol Whip maneuvers, and the specialty bonus to the Disarm maneuver.
  
  
• Feral allows the specialty bonus when making Biting or Clawing attacks. This usually requires either the ability to shapeshift like a werewolf, or to grow claws, such as a Gangrel with Protean.
  
  
• Kicking allows the specialty bonus for the Kick, Sweep and Reading an Opponent maneuvers.
  
  
• Punching allows the specialty bonus for the Punch, Haymaker and Reading an Opponent maneuvers.
  
  
• Stalker allows the specialty bonus for surprise and rear attacks.
  
  
• Wrestling gives access to the Body Slam maneuver, and allows the specialty bonus when using the Grappling or Tackle maneuvers.

EMPATHY

Description: Empathy provides you with insight into how the people around you feel. This helps you to understand them better and perhaps allows you to calm, rouse, or otherwise adjust their emotional state. A higher rating allows you to understand where others are coming from even better than they might be aware of themselves, to more convincingly sympathize with or feign sympathy for certain individuals, or play on their emotions as you see fit. You are adept at discerning motive, and might be able to detect when someone’s lying to you. Take heed: Empathy is usually restricted to intimate, one-on-one interactions, such as a therapy session, interrogation cell or a hot date. Connecting with bigger groups tends to rely more on Leadership and Expression.

Allowed Specialties: Carousing, Interrogation, Persuasion, Sense Deception

Rules: Empathy is usually roleplayed, with the Storyteller often simply giving characters with high Empathy a benefit of the doubt in describing situations and reactions. In especially tense situations, a Storyteller can ask a player to roll Manipulation + Empathy vs a set difficulty to gain some insight into an NPC’s motives or current emotional state.

Story Example: Human expressions can be so hard for a lupus to recognize. What exactly does that face mean? Roll Perception + Empathy (difficulty 6) to figure it out.

• The Carousing specialty allows you to roll Charisma + Empathy to influence those around you to relax and have fun. This might include showing a potential ally (or vessel) a good time, loosening an informant’s tongue, or making instant drinking buddies who come to your aid when a brawl starts. The difficulty is typically 6 (most people can be persuaded to loosen up), though it might be higher when dealing with particularly large or surly groups.
  
  
• The Interrogation specialty allows you to peacefully interrogate someone, typically by feigning friendliness (the ‘Good Cop’ routine), or asking strategic questions designed to make the subject reveal more than they realize. Some interrogation method, such as the ‘Scharff Technique’ utilize both approaches. Roll Manipulation + Empathy vs difficulty 6, which is contested by the subject’s Willpower. For every success over the subject’s own roll, they divulge one extra bit of additional information over the course of a session. If your extra successes exceed the subject’s permanent Willpower, they will fold completely on that particular line of questioning. This method is much slower than violently beating the truth out of someone, though is likely to result in convincing the subject that you have their best interests at heart. Over a long enough period, this could even flip a former enemy into a long-term asset.
  
  
• The Persuasion specialty allows you to read and take advantage of another’s emotional state, to better convince them to act how you would prefer. A therapist, life coach or mentor might try to engender positive change, whereas a pick-up artist, salesman or borderline sociopath usually has more selfish motives. Roll Manipulation + Empathy vs a difficulty determined by an opposing character’s Appearance + Empathy or Subterfuge (use whichever is higher). These success can either apply as bonus dice to a subsequent mundane roll (such as deceiving or seducing someone), or be used as shorthand to gauge how sincerely an NPC might respond, or how many excuses can be brushed aside.
  
  
• The Sense Deception specialty allows a character to actively listen or watch for evidence of being mislead, not unlike a human lie detector, albeit just as fallible. Most lies require the same passive Credibility check as usual (the deceiver rolls their Manipulation + Subterfuge vs a difficulty determined by the sum of your Intelligence or Perception + Subterfuge ratings).
  • However, when trying to deceive a character who has actively declared Sense Deception, you may roll Wits + Empathy vs a difficulty determined by the sum of the supposed deceiver’s Manipulation and Subterfuge ratings, and subtract any successes from their deception attempt.

EXPRESSION

Description: This is your ability to get your point across clearly, whether through conversation, poetry, or even in 140 characters or fewer. Characters with high Expression can phrase their opinions or beliefs in a manner that cannot be easily ignored (even if their opinions are misinformed). As such, this Talent covers all manner of communication, where getting your point across and being understood by your audience matters. This includes both creative writing, such as poetry and screenplays to owner’s manuals, speech writing and debate.

Allowed Specialties: Punditry, Poetry, Debate, Sermons, Lecturing, Creative Writing, Speech Writing, Technical Writing

Rules: In most cases, getting your point across is a simple Manipulation + Expression roll vs a difficulty determined by what you’re trying to accomplish. Eating the Irish is a harder sell than rocking the vote.

Expression is typically paired with Charisma for Poetry, Punditry or Sermons, with Manipulation for Debate, with Wits for Creative Writing (including satire), and with Intelligence for Lecturing or Technical Writing. You are free to suggest alternatives.

A character with the Speech Writing specialty can roll Intelligence + Expression (difficulty 7) to write a speech or prepare a statement ahead of time. Success on this roll reduces the difficulty of the subsequent speech by one. This could be a sermon, lecture or a Leadership roll. Failure has no effect.

Story Example: Whose story will the Prince believe — yours or your enemy’s? Roll Manipulation + Expression, resisted by your rival’s Manipulation + Expression.

INTIMIDATION

Description: Intimidation takes many forms, from outright threats and physical violence to mere force of personality. Maybe you understand the unconscious cues of social alpha-ism or have a way with cutting words. Or perhaps you’re simply big enough or mean enough to inspire submission. Whatever your secret might be, this Talent gives you an edge when coercing other people, beasts, and possibly other entities as well.

Allowed Specialties: Authority, Bullying, Dominance, Extortion, Torture

Rules: Intimidation has two effects. Intimidation’s passive effect doesn’t involve a roll; it simply gives your character plenty of space – whether on a bus or in a bar. The higher your Intimidation rating, the wider the berth that others give him.

Intimidation’s active application works through subtlety or outright threat. Subtlety is based on a perceived threat (losing one’s job, being arrested, pain and agony later in life). Roll Manipulation + Intimidation in a resisted action (difficulty 6) against either the subject’s Willpower or her Manipulation + Intimidation (whichever is higher). The target must get more successes or be effectively unsettled.

Story Example #1: It would be foolish to threaten your rival openly while in the confines of Elysium. Roll Manipulation + Intimidation (difficulty 8) to properly veil your threat without leaving her in doubt as to your intentions. A success might make them less likely to voice open criticism in front of the Elysium Harpies.

The blatant form of Intimidation involves direct physical threat. In this case, you may roll Strength + Intimidation in a resisted roll (difficulty 6) against either the subject’s Willpower or her Strength + Intimidation (whichever is higher).

Story Example #2: You threaten the mouthy young pup by lifting him off the floor by his collar. Roll Strength + Intimidation (difficulty 8) to get him back in line.

This system covers mundane coercion only. Player characters can spend a Willpower point to steel themselves against mundane intimidation attempts for the scene. An Intimidation roll isn’t always needed to scare someone: All but the most divinely serene or psychopathic mortals will likely quail in fear from encountering any blatant supernatural display, whether it’s glowing red eyes, a talking wolf, or even a levitating pencil.

Intimidation comes in various flavors and circumstances, which is represented by its allowed specialties:

• Authority refers to using one’s rank or position in some hierarchy to underline their will. This could be a teacher, a badge or a Prince.
  
  
• Bullying refers to coercing peers or near-peers, such as another student, or a Garou rudely coercing a spirit to cooperate in some venture.
  
  
• Dominance is primarily associated with shifters (or other bestial sorts), and applies to Staredown or Facedown contests.
  
  
• Extortion refers mostly to blackmail or racketeering attempts.
  
  
• The Torture specialty allows a character to force compliance from a (usually helpless) victim by inflicting violence upon them. Such depraved interrogation techniques involves traumatizing the victim’s mind or body, often permanently. This is an extended action wherein the torturer rolls Manipulation + Intimidation vs a difficulty determined by the victim’s Stamina + 3 or Willpower (whichever is higher). Rolls are made every ‘session’, with the ultimate target number of successes determined by the Storyteller, and highly dependent on circumstances. A fanatic Jihadi or blood-bound servant of a cruel Prince might have many layers of indoctrination that conceal their deepest secrets. A victim usually suffers at least one lethal level of health lost and one or more temporary Willpower dots per session. When they are reduced to 0 temporary Willpower, they can dig in and sacrifice a dot of permanent Willpower. Often, a particularly zealous victim has to be kept alive for days, weeks or even months before everything of worth is extracted from them.
  • The torturer can also take the ‘Jack Bauer’ approach, and simply begin breaking bones or cutting off fingers until the victim relents. The torturer makes a Strength + Intimidation roll vs the lower of the victim’s Stamina + 3 or Willpower, whichever is lower. Unlike the above approach, this roll can be repeated each minute, with the victim taking a lethal level of damage for every roll. If the torturer fails a single roll, they may either accidentally kill their victim, render them catatonic, or elicit a bogus confession.

KENNING

Description: Kenning is faerie sight. It allows a character to sense Glamour in all of its forms. He can recognize the power of cantrips and freeholds, identify “slumbering” changelings, and even discover the elusive prodigals and their magic. This insight is usually an impression. Gremayre is required to know specifics about what the changeling senses.

Allowed Specialties: None

Rules: In addition to its other effects, Kenning is treated as a substitute for the Awareness talent.

LEADERSHIP

Description: 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 setting an example and inspiring others – thus presenting yourself as the sort of person they genuinely want to follow. Anyone can lead a group into some sort of conflict; a good leader can get them back out intact.

Allowed Specialties: Alpha, Executive, Multimedia, Oratory, Tactical, Teamwork

Rules: When your character speaks to an audience, from a small board meeting to a large crowd, roll Charisma + Leadership. Difficulty is typically 6; the Storyteller may increase the difficulty for a huge, cynical, dispassionate or openly hostile audience. Oration is hit or miss – your character either succeeds or fails.

Story Example: The mob is angry and out for the blood of your Kinfolk. Roll Charisma + Leadership (difficulty 7) to give an off-the-cuff speech, and hopefully save someone’s life. You will need four successes to convince them to move along.

• The Alpha specialty is relevant for those who take or more instinctive or animalistic approach to leadership, such as a pack of Garou. Although some human gangs might act like a pack of wolves, the character must possess the Primal-Urge talent to take this specialty. It applies to kinfolk, shifters and animals of the same species that you are descended from.
  
  
• The Executive specialty is applicable to the often impersonal leadership exercised in the context of a greater, formalized hierarchy, such as the CEO of a Fortune 500 company, a chief of police, or the local Prince. In this context, strength of will and vision are of greater importance than personal camaraderie.
  
  
• The Multimedia specialty is relevant for entertainers, newscasters, influencers and trendsetters.
  
  
• The Oratory specialty is applicable for giving prepared or improvised speeches, such as when running for office or lobbying.
  
  
• The Teamwork specialty allows the character to designate any small group – no larger than your average sport’s team (though could be a gang, or clubhouse). You are considered a ‘glue guy/girl’ for this particular subset, and may benefit from the specialty bonus when your Leadership rolls are directed at them.
  
  
• The Tactical specialty is specific to the command and control of small, squad-sized units – as understood in a military or law enforcement context. Higher levels of leadership reflect coolness under pressure, and the conciseness and clarity of your orders, along with an understanding of relevant tactical doctrine.

PRIMAL-URGE

Description: This Talent describes a character’s connection to her bestial nature, and her level of gut feelings in her various nonhuman forms. A character with high Primal-Urge relies not just on her heightened instincts, but a whole range of sensory information that humans don’t fully understand. Her understanding of her feral nature gives her an easier time when changing form, and can let her instinctively notice signs of supernatural activity — though this rarely goes beyond the level of a chill down the spine or the hairs on her neck standing on end.

Allowed Specialties: Awareness, Hunting, Primal Allure

Rules: Any werewolf worth that name can smell, hear and often feel things that the average person might miss. The truly perceptive among them can sense the current of emotions in a room, or catch tell-tale hints that betray illusions or reveal hidden things. As such, Primal-Urge is treated as a substitute for the Awareness talent.

• Sensing: A werewolf player can take an action and declare “I’m smelling the air/scanning the area/cocking an ear/ searching for cues/etc.” in an effort to notice something that might not be immediately obvious. Under normal circumstances, a non-werewolf character would roll Perception + Alertness to spot sensory clues with the Scan specialty.
  • A character with Primal-Urge can instead roll Perception + Primal-Urge with at least one diff lower even in Homid form (the exact diff bonus dependent on the form and the sensory stimuli in question). Essentially, the character’s animal nature notes things that her ‘human side’ might miss.
  • This does not replace any other use of Alertness, and is never a passive, ongoing effect. It is a deliberate surrendering to of one’s more animalistic half.
  • Werewolves can roll Perception + Primal-Urge to sense dominance or submission in another character instead of using Empathy. If a character (such as another shifter) knows that their measure is being taken in this fashion, they can roll Manipulation + Empathy or Etiquette against a difficulty of the Garou’s total Perception + Primal-Urge to keep themselves from being such an easy read.
    
    
• Animal Attraction: Forbidden sexuality is an essential part of lupine legend, and some Garou enjoy playing the Big Bad Wolf to get what they want. Ethically, such behavior is dark territory. Still, the lure of the Abyss behind a werewolf’s eyes can be almost irresistible when that predator turns on the charm. Some werewolves regard using this potent attraction as a consent issue, no matter how primal and instinctual it may feel. Certainly, it taps into the sense of awe that weaker creatures feel when confronted with powerful beasts – which is all humans were to the Garou during the long millennia of the Impergium.
  • Note: although this ‘talent’ encourages a brief, potent chemistry between a werewolf and her ‘prey’, it can’t force someone to do something they really don’t want to do. That ‘want’ may go against the target’s ‘better nature’ – leading, perhaps, to a liaison or infidelity he’ll regret in the morning – but if he’s really set on remaining faithful to his spouse it ain’t happening. Even if some part of them is open to it, and you fully succeed, factors like sexual orientation and other deeply held convictions still play a part. Not every wild night necessarily leads to sex.
  • In game terms, a player whose werewolf invokes animal attraction rolls her character’s Charisma + Primal-Urge. The difficulty is the prey’s Willpower rating, and she must score enough successes to exceed that character’s Willpower. If she succeeds, her prey gets swept away by the primal passions evoked in them.
    • Many people (especially those with a Willpower rating low enough to be highly susceptible) feel terrified by such urges, especially within themselves. If the werewolf player fails her roll, the prey realizes that he’s essentially raw meat, and will avoid her advances as much as possible. If the werewolf player botches their roll, the ‘prey’ freaks out completely, falling into Delirium’s madness. Even after, he’ll know her, deep down, for the monster she is.
  • Although a vampire may be impressed by bestial allure, the walking dead are mechanically immune to animal attraction. Other supernatural beings, like mages or the fae, are harder to impress than mortals are; in game terms, you would add two levels of the difficulty (on top of what is likely a higher Willpower already) to invoke animal attraction in such powerful prey. Animal attraction doesn’t work on Garou or other werebeasts at all; they’re in touch with that side of themselves already.
    
    
• Shadowing: Stalking prey comes naturally to werewolves. Even in the urban jungles of crowds and alleys, a hunter can track prey – or, if your werewolf is the prey, leave a tracker behind. Shadowing a target involves three steps: 1) slipping behind your target, 2) keeping him in sight, and 3) making sure he doesn’t see you in the process.
  • 1) Roll Perception + Investigation or Streetwise for urban settings, or Perception + Survival or Primal-Urge for rural areas or wilderness. The difficulty depends upon the subject being tracked and the circumstances involved. Following a spry pickpocket through a dense, surging crowd might be difficulty 8, while tracking a lost tourist through Griffith Park at night as a wolf would be difficulty 4 at most.
    • Each success keeps the prey in sight for one turn. That’s when the second step comes in.
  • 2) The Storyteller determines how many more successes the tracker needs in order to follow her target to his destination. A long trip or difficult circumstances might require 10 or more successes. If the tracker fails a roll she loses sight of the prey but can try to spot (or smell) him again; if she fails the next roll, he’s gone for good.
  • 3) The third step consists of remaining unseen. In game terms, the shadowing player rolls Dexterity + Stealth (or Drive, if the chase occurs in cars) each time she rolls her Perception attempt. The difficulty depends on the cover she can employ relative to her quarry. If the prey knows (or even suspects) that they’re being followed, the roll becomes contested, usually rolling Perception + Alertness. They may roll Perception + Primal-Urge if being stalked by another shifter or animal.
    
    
• Tracking: The fearsome hunting instincts all werewolves possess make them skillful trackers. When discerning or following a physical trail, use Perception + Primal-Urge to spot the necessary clues. Often, an extended roll requiring five successes or more, tracking helps the hunter pursue his quarry from a distance. (For closer hunts, see Shadowing, above.)
  • Each successful roll gives the hunter a fairly clear view of the trail for about five minutes. Failure allows him to try and find the trail again (adding one to the next roll’s difficulty), while a botched roll loses the trail completely. If the difficulty rises above 10, the trail goes cold for good.
  • A tracking roll’s base difficulty is 7, but may be modified by several factors: weather, terrain, potentially confusing distractions (flowing water, crowd-scents, unfriendly observers and so forth), and the skill of the character who’s being pursued. Following a Pentex First Team down the Appalachian Trail would be cub’s play, while stalking a suspicious vampire through New Year’s Eve crowds would challenge even the finest hunter.

STEALTH

Description: This 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. This ability is, for obvious reasons, highly useful in stalking prey. In many cases, Stealth is also used to conceal items, whether on one’s person or somewhere in the environment.

Allowed Specialties: Camouflage, Misdirection, Rural, Urban

Rules: There are many occasions in the World of Darkness to roll Stealth. The Rural and Urban simply specialties reflect a particular talent for either quietly finding your way through the city streets or the wilderness. Additionally, without one of these specialties, your Stealth will typically be capped by your Streetwise in an urban environment and capped by your Survival in a rural environment. This is always up to the Storyteller whether to enforce: In very narratively appropriate or uncertain circumstances, such as a pitch black room or a city park, the player should be allowed to roll their entire Stealth, regardless.

• Sneaking: A sneaking character uses Dexterity + Stealth as a resisted action against Perception + Alertness rolls from anyone able to detect her passing. The difficulty of both rolls is typically 6 (e.g., a city street), though may be subject to circumstantial modifiers as common sense dictates (it is easier to avoid detection in a dark forest during a rain storm than a well lit parlor after brunch). Unless the observer scores more successes than the sneaking character does, she passes undetected. Certain security devices, scanners or superior vantage points may add dice to the opposing Perception + Alertness rolls, and both rolls may be grossly affected by various supernatural powers.

• Shadowing: Stalking someone requires that your character keep tabs on the target without necessarily catching her – and without being noticed in the process. At the Storyteller’s discretion, or if the target suspects she’s being pursued, the target’s player can roll Perception + Alertness whenever she has a chance to spot her tail (usually determined by the ST). The pursuer’s player opposes this with a Dexterity + Stealth roll (or Dexterity + the lowest of your Stealth or Drive, if the shadower is in a vehicle).
  • Shadowing differs from normal sneaking and hiding in two key ways: The first is that both the shadower and the target’s Stealth and Alertness ratings are capped to no higher than their Streetwise or Survival, depending on whether they’re in a rural or urban setting. Secondly, teams of shadowers who have trained together, such as a gang of pickpockets or pack of wolves can combine their separate rolls into one success total. This is an excellent way to keep tabs on even the most suspicious quarry – although if even one participant botches their roll, the jig will immediately be up for the whole crew.
    

• The Camouflage specialty allows a character to roll their Stealth pool to conceal another object, such as a body, a booby trap or a vehicle beneath camo-netting, in order to avoid detection.
  
  
• The Misdirection specialty represents the fine art of distracting folks from what you’re actually trying to do. It is an essential skill for magicians, pickpockets, spies anyone else who prefers to redirect attention (or slip something into a drink), and can be used to represent a talent for sleight of hand.
  • Additionally, instead of attempting a normal surprise attack, a character with this specialty can roll Manipulation + Stealth (difficulty 5 + the target’s Wits) when winning Initiative and initiating combat during the same round. Every success lowers the difficulty of your next strike.

STREETWISE

Description: A character with this Talent is at home on the streets. He can fit in with rough crowds, knows who to ask for information, understands slang, and can buy and sell on the black market. The network of criminals, junkies, and lowlifes who live on the streets will turn on an outsider, but if he’s careful, a streetwise character can thrive there. With a high rating in Streetwise, the underworld is indisputably your home, and you know it well enough to where you likely either grew up on the streets, or have devoted your nightly existence to either terrorizing, policing, helping or preying on its various denizens.

Allowed Specialties: Black Market, Drug Trade, Flesh Trade, Gangs, Skip Tracing, Vagrancy, (Specific ‘Hood)

Rules: In addition to its limitless narrative potential, Streetwise can help you shadow someone in an urban environment, pick up rumors and make it harder for a con artist to fast-talk you. A character’s Stealth might be capped by their Streetwise in an urban environment if they lack an appropriate Stealth specialty.

Story Example: The new gang in town’s been awfully good at picking out Kindred-run operations to take over. Roll Charisma + Streetwise (difficulty 8) to see what people know about them. The more successes you get, the more information you receive, but the legwork will take an entire night regardless.

• The Black Market, Drug Trade, Flesh Trade and Gang specialties suggest that your character has a narratively relevant focus on those areas, where smuggling or illicit acquisition is involved. You are certain to get more detailed information when digging up rumors or gossip in regards to your specialty. A specialty related to a Specific ‘Hood, such as Skid Row, San Pedro or Watts will get an intense amount of leeway when it comes to making any streetwise rolls related to his own neighborhood.
  
  
• The Skip Tracing specialty means that you have training and experience with tracking down people, such as a bounty hunter. Any Streetwise rolls made in this context such as Shadowing or digging up information on a specific individual will benefit both from the specialty bonus and being rewarded with more detailed information by your Storyteller.
  
  
• The Vagrancy specialty covers everything involved with surviving and thriving on the streets of Los Angeles, no matter how destitute you might be. It will help you avoid trouble, find shelter and even something to eat, such as knowing the best places to panhandle or the nearest overpass to sleep under at night. This specialty is required for your character to be given any specific consideration for being at home when homeless on the streets, and is thus a favorite of certain creatures such as Bone Gnawers or Malkavians.

SUBTERFUGE

Description: Subterfuge involves hiding your motives and projecting something else on top of that. If you can figure out what someone else wants, you can twist that to your best advantage. A trade secret for sneaks, gossips, grifters, and frauds, this Talent helps you get around social barriers, figure out what people want, and then appeal to their desires. It doesn’t have to involve outright lying – the best con artist often accomplishes more by carefully shading the truth. Characters with high Subterfuge are masters of knowing precisely what to say to further their own goals.

Allowed Specialties: Credibility, Disguise, Fast-Talk, Masquerade, Mimicry,

Rules: There are numerous narrative encounters where a Subterfuge roll might be called for – including any time you might wish to play your cards close to the vest or sell a fabricated story.

Story Example: After being questioned for hours, roll Stamina + Subterfuge (difficulty 8) to keep to the story you made up. With five successes, you just might convince them that you are telling the truth.

• Credibility: “You’ve gotta believe me!” When such words fall from the lips of your character (whether or not he’s actually telling the truth when confronted with a suspicious audience or an inconvenient piece of evidence), you might roll Manipulation + Subterfuge to see how credible he really comes across.
  • Generally, the difficulty of that roll is based on the target’s Intelligence or Perception (whichever is higher) + Subterfuge. Circumstances may raise or lower that difficulty. A high-Honor Garou or otherwise trustworthy Troll would have a lower difficulty, while a Ragabash or a Tremere would face a higher one. If your character really is telling the truth, the Storyteller should lower the difficulty in all but the face of the most hostile accuser.
    
    
• Fast-Talking: When you want to baffle ‘em with bullshit, this is the system to use. Normally, a player who wants to set his target off-balance with a verbal overload rolls Manipulation + Subterfuge, although Charisma or Appearance might work as well or better, depending on convincing the roleplaying is. Either way, the roll’s difficulty equals the target’s Wits + Streetwise. A successful roll confuses the hell out of said target, who then does — within reason — whatever the trickster wants her to do for the next few turns, until she gets her wits together again. This is more suitable for getting a security guard to search in the wrong direction, not shoot himself in the head. Extraordinary results require extraordinary roleplaying as well.
  • In order to resist the trickster’s tactics, the target might spend a Willpower point and nullify that successful roll entirely if they have the slightest reason to be genuinely suspicious. A failed roll lets the target get a word in edgewise, which may throw the fast-talker off his game. A botched roll pisses the target off — from that point on, our trickster’s not getting away with shit.
  • A specialty of Ragabash Garou and other mischievous types, fast-talk can be hilarious, scary, or just plain weird. If the trickster’s trying to keep his target confused for a while, the Storyteller might require several rolls, yet watch out if you fail: People don’t like being tricked, and a character who suddenly sees through a fast-talk attempt will not take things well.
    
    
• The Disguise specialty involves This might involve impersonating an existing person, concealing your own identity, or creating a whole new persona independent of yourself. Even without Life or Mind magick, your expertise can fool casual observers… and, at the higher levels, fool almost anyone. Add a Discipline like Vicissitude or Obfuscate, or a Magickal effect such as Life and /or Mind to this Skill, and your disguise can become damn near perfect.
  • With or without make-up and such, the art of disguise depends upon an ineffable quality that allows a person to slip into another personality. A truly magnificent disguise-artist can change personas with a few shifts of physicality, though most folks need make-up and clothes to complete the illusion. Disguise means “remove appearances,” and so the core of this Skill involves changing the way you come across – not simply gluing on a moustache, but appearing to become an entirely different person.
    

• The Masquerade specialty reflects a vampire character who is particularly skilled at appearing to be mortal: feigning respiration, creating a heartbeat, producing pink skin (by bringing blood to the surface), sneezing, masking vampiric tendencies, et al. Subterfuge may be paired with a Social Attribute to determine whether the character successfully passes as a mortal among mortals.
  

• A character with the Mimicry specialty is a skilled imitator. You can mimic voices or sounds; the higher your rating, the greater your ability. The human larynx is quite flexible, capable of a wide vocal range. (A touch of Life magick or a Discipline such as Vicissitude can make that range even wider if you augment your natural abilities.) At the lower levels, you can imitate accents or the voices of specific people, while higher levels help you fake an impressive range of sonic phenomena

ANIMAL KEN

Description: You can understand animals’ behavior patterns. This Skill allows you to better predict how an animal might react in a given situation, train a domesticated creature, or even try to calm an enraged animal.

Humans think and behave far differently to other animals. It takes a special touch to deal with other creatures, especially if they’re hurt or frightened. A person (or even another predatory creature such as a Nosferatu or a werewolf) with Animal Ken knows how to speak and move in such a way to gain an animal’s trust.

Allowed Specialties: Riding <Animal>, Falconry, Specific Animals (Dogs, Cats, Ravens, etc)

Rules: Animal Ken is necessary for training animals and for working closely with animals whether it’s foxhunting, falconry, the Equestrian sports or leading a mule train. It also plays a major role in certain spheres such as Changeling or Mage, which might involve more fanciful mounts than in a typical World of Darkness game, especially if much of the action were taking place in the Dreaming.

• Without Animal Ken (or a power such as Animalism), even high Humanity vampires or lupus werewolves have a hard time dealing with animals that can sense their Beast or Rage. There’s a lot of dogs in Los Angeles and they do like to bark.

Story Example: Can you distract the guard dogs while you slip in? Roll Manipulation + Animal Ken (difficulty 8).

• Riding <Horses, Camels, Griffins, Giant Wolves, etc>: You know how to saddle, care for, and ride some sort of animal, thanks to a combination of techniques and bonding. This skillset provides you with a decent chance of getting where you want to go without the unfortunate occurrences of being thrown off, trampled, or possibly eaten by your ride.
  • Of course, certain beasts are harder to ride than others, and for truly dangerous or exotic mounts like tigers, griffins, giant owls, etc., you’ll probably need Animal Ken 3 or better just to stay in the saddle.
  • Under challenging circumstances such as combat, hard gallops, stunts, flying, and so on, you may need to make a Dexterity + Animal Ken roll. Moreover, Charisma + Animal Ken aids in bonding with your mount, and Intelligence + Animal Ken gives you the knowledge to take care of it, maintain riding gear, and puzzle out someone else’s riding techniques.

CRAFTS

Description: This Skill covers your ability to make or fix things with your hands. Crafts allows you to work in fields such as carpentry, leatherworking, metallurgy, or even mechanical expertise such as car repair. You must always choose a specialization in Crafts. In addition to creating or repairing, a specialization suggests a certain degree of related knowledge (such as recognizing famous practitioners) or the ability to appraise (or break) other works in their chosen field.

Allowed Specialties*: Artisan (Specific Trade), Construction, Gunsmith, Blacksmith, Mechanic

Rules: You gain a free, mandatory specialty upon taking your first dot in this Ability. You cannot benefit from this Ability, when attempting a non-specialized task. You simply roll the base attribute as normal, though do not suffer an additional untrained penalty.

• Shooting guns is easy. Knowing how guns work is a bit more complicated. The Gunsmith specialty reflects a practical knowledge of weapon manufacture, modification, design and repair. The various levels cover expanding categories of firearms expertise. Given time, tools, and enough dots in this Skill, you can fix guns, craft firearms and unique ammo from scratch.
  • This specialty is required to perform certain supernatural feats (like Matter and Forces Effects) to alter or supercharge mundane firearms in various ways.

• The Construction specialty covers reasonable things involved in building (or flipping a house). Divergent skill sets like carpentry or plumbing are collected together for aesthetic, narrative purposes. Blacksmith is anything requiring a forge.
  
  
• Mechanic will cover most anything requiring an engine, even though something like Technology or Computers will need to be paired with it for the most modern vehicles. (For vehicle repair, modification, hotwiring, and car-stripping rules, see M20 Core pg. 463-464).
  
  
• The Artisan (Specific Trade) specialty remains for those with a truly unique or niche pursuit that doesn’t seem right for Artistry.
  
  Story Example: You need to board up the door to your haven in record speed – and it needs to be durable, too! Roll Wits + Crafts (difficulty 7).

• Crafts is especially useful for werewolves who hope to make fetishes. It’s easier to convince a spirit to enter a vessel that’s made well, after all.

DRIVE

Description: This Skill reflects the everyday complexities of automobile handling: the higher your rating, the better you are behind the wheel. This Skill does not automatically entail familiarity with complicated vehicles such as tanks or 18-wheelers, and difficulties may vary depending on your experience with individual automobiles. After all, helming a station wagon doesn’t prepare you for double-clutching a Maserati at 100 miles per hour.

Allowed Specialties: Evasive Driving, Pursuit, Off-Road, Motorcycles, Heavy Trucks (18-wheeler etc), Military Vehicles, Sedans (and other vehicle types, etc)

Rules: A single dot in this Skill represents basic operation of an automatic transmission car. Higher levels represent familiarity with a manual transmission, or something like a limousine or a racecar. The difficulty of a given Drive roll might increase or decrease depending on the terrain and the character’s familiarity with the vehicle.

Story Example #1: You try to pull alongside the fleeing Mercedes so your friends can leap aboard. Make an extended Dexterity + Drive roll, resisted by the Mercedes driver’s Wits + Drive. If you accumulate five total successes more than his total successes, you’re in position. If he accumulates a total of five more successes than you get, he escapes.

Story Example #2: Suddenly, a man pushes a crate out of the van you’ve been chasing — roll Wits + Drive (difficulty 6) to swerve out of the way in time.

• Shadowing someone is easier on foot than it is in a car; even so, a skilled driver or navigator can shadow someone from behind the wheel, or next to it, as well. See the Stealth entry for more information.

• The Motorcycles, Heavy Trucks and Military Vehicles specialties are required to operate any of these vehicle types without considerable penalties – if at all in the case of a big eighteen-wheeler or a tank.

• Stunt Driving: When car chases, wild stunts, and hazardous conditions crop up, it’s time to roll that trait. Using either her Dexterity or his Wits (Storyteller’s choice) + Drive, the player tries to beat the odds and keep her vehicle under control. The Storyteller determines the difficulty, based on the nature of the maneuver and the circumstances (slick road, gunfight, car on fire, etc.) involved.
  • Certain vehicles are easier to control than others: The chart below features an array of vehicles, their approximate speeds, and the Maneuverability rating for each one. This rating limits the number of dice you can use in your Dexterity (or Wits) + Driving roll with that vehicle.
    • If Chaser, for instance, tries to jump his Harley over a police barricade, his player’s maximum dice pool would be 8; if he tries to do the same thing with a truck, his dice pool limit would be 3.
  • Speed kills: Each vehicle type has a maximum safe speed, and for every 10 mph over that limit the difficulty of the feat rises by one.
    • Chaser’s difficulty with the Harley, for example, would be two levels higher if he tries to make the jump at 110 mph. Even if he can make the jump successfully, however, momentum is momentum. A character who’s driving like Vin Diesel on crystal meth had better hope he’s still got enough room to stop.
      
      
• Ramming and Collisions: In order to avoid absurdly complicated rules, assume that a vehicle ramming a character inflicts that vehicle’s Durability in bashing damage, plus one die for every 10 MPH (14” per turn) that the vehicle was traveling at the time. Thus, a crotch rocket motorcycle ramming someone at 50 MPH inflicts eight dice of bashing damage, but a limo going at that speed inflicts 10.
  • Certain vehicles inflict additional dice of damage simply because they’re bigger and harder than a character is: The extra impact-based damage is up to the Storyteller, though usually ranges for +1 for a mid-sized sedan to +3 for an armored limousine or a city bus, to +5 for an 18-wheeler or tank.
  • Passengers inside a colliding vehicle take the usual damage, minus that vehicle’s Durability rating; if they’re strapped in, halve the damage they would normally suffer. However, be warned that car crashes are chaotic events – the Storyteller has the final say on the end result.

• Drive-By Shooting & Passenger Concealment: Characters firing from inside a moving vehicle suffer a penalty of between -1 (low speed) to -3 (high speed). This goes up, of course, if they’re moving through rough or obstructing terrain (rain, fog, ice, off-road, etc.).
  • Characters inside a vehicle are typically protected by that vehicle’s Durability. Unless the shooter rolls four successes or more to hit her target, assume that the vehicle protects the passengers. A targeted shot through the window normally adds +3 to the shooter’s difficulty, although smaller windows (say, like on an armored car) may add +5 or more.
  • Certain attacks, of course, can easily exceed that Durability rating; in that case, the passengers might take damage from the attack, minus the vehicle’s Durability rating. For typical firearms, just figure that the usual cinematic “car protects the passengers” rule applies; however, for heavy weapons – .50 caliber machine guns, rocket launchers, pulse cannons, etc. – all bets are off. Any vehicle that hasn’t been specifically armored to withstand such carnage is essentially a rolling death trap.
  • Shooting the Gas Tank: An attack on a vehicle’s gas tank demands at least three successes on the attack roll, and must inflict no fewer than six health levels’ worth of damage, before the fuel goes off. An exploding car detonates for roughly 12 dice of flaming aggravated damage. Larger vehicles (helicopters, boats, tanker trucks, etc.) can inflict far more.

Vehicle Traits

The following Traits define the essential systems for common vehicles:

• Safe/ Max. Speed: Safe Speed reflects how fast a character can drive the vehicle in question without being penalized for high speed; Max. Speed is more or less where a baseline model realistically tops out without further modification.
• Acceleration: Characters add +1 to the difficulty of their vehicle operation rolls for every 10 MPH over its Safe Speed. Acceleration modifies that number, (e.g., an Acceleration of 1.5 would add +1 difficulty for every 15 mph over a vehicle’s Safe Speed).
• Maneuverability: Certain vehicles handle better than others. Maneuverability reflects the maximum dice pool a character can use when operating this vehicle. (This applies only to the dice pool used for driving, of course… although it’s also hard to seduce someone in the middle of a high-speed chase.)
• Durability: The number of health levels it takes to penetrate the vehicle’s body; until that point, damage just bounces off the surface.
• Structure: The amount of damage the vehicle can take before it’s too destroyed to function as more than a block of wreckage.

Wheeled Street Vehicles

Vehicle	Safe Speed	Max. Speed	Acceleration	Maneuver	Durability	Structure
Scooter (Vespa, etc)	30	60	0.5 (5 MPH)	7	1	2
Dirt Bike*	40	80	1.0 (10 MPH)	8	2	3
Standard Motorcycle1	60	120	1.5 (15 MPH)	7	2	3
Cruiser2	70	110	1.0 (10 MPH)	7	3	3
Touring Motorcycle 3	80	120	1.0 (10 MPH)	6	4	4
Sports Bike4	60	160	2.0 (20 MPH)	9	2	3
Superbike5	60	185	2.5 (25 MPH)	10	3	3
‘Badass Hypercycle’6	90	240	3.0 (30 MPH)	10	5	5
ATV*	30	60	0.5 (5 MPH)	5	3	5

Cars (WIP)

Vehicle	Safe Speed	Max. Speed	Acceleration	Maneuver	Durability	Structure
Jeep*	60	80		6	4	5
Compact Car	70	130		6	3	3
Midsize Sedan	70	120		5	3	4
Luxury Sedan				6	4	5
Hatchback					4	4
Station Wagon	80	120		4	3	5
Crossover (car-like SUV)
Sports Car	130	200		9	3	4
Street Racer	70	240		8	4	4
Patrol Car	80	200		7	5	5
Police Interceptor	100	250		8	5	5
‘Supercar’	100	250		10	6	5

Trucks (WIP)

Vehicle	Safe Speed	Max. Speed	Acceleration	Maneuver	Durability	Structure
Limo	70	110		4	4	6
Armored Limo	70	100		4	8	6
Stretch Car	80	100		3	3	5
Pickup Truck	70	110		5-7	3	6
SUV / Van	60	120		6	4	7
Armored Supervan	50	100		5	10	10
Off-Road Truck	60	90		5	4	7
Hummer	80	120		5	5	8
Armored Car	60	80		4	10	10
RV	60	80		3	3	8
Bus	60	100		3	4	8
Large Truck	60	110		4-5	4	6
Heavy Truck	60	100		4	6	8
18-Wheeler	70	110		4	5	8

Military Vehicles (WIP)

Vehicle	Safe Speed	Max. Speed	Acceleration	Maneuver	Durability	Structure
APC	30	60		4	12	15
Riot Tank	30	50		3	10	15
Light Tank	20	30		2	18/15	18
Heavy Tank	30	50		2	22/20	25

ETIQUETTE

Description: You understand the nuances of proper behavior, which makes you a quick study when determining the right course of action when encountering varied social circumstances. Examples include not embarrassing yourself at your boss’ dinner party, navigating a gang-controlled neighborhood at night (combined with Streetwise), passing through a military checkpoint (no doubt combined with a little Subterfuge), not dropping the soap in the shower or the entire plot of Lawrence of Arabia.

In many cases, intuiting how to broach a topic is as important as the discussion itself, and a person with poor etiquette (i.e., social IQ) will never have an opportunity to make herself heard because she doesn’t know when or how to interject.

Allowed Specialties: High Society, various supernatural factions, mortal cultures and subcultures are all appropriate.

Rules: Ultimately, this Skill represents – at a certain fundamental level – knowing how to not piss people off.

Story Example: You (a young Cliath werewolf) want to conduct yourself as respectfully as possible around the high-ranking elder of your tribe. Roll Wits + Etiquette (difficulty 8).

• While a character understands the culture in which he was raised, the Storyteller may raise the difficulty should he be faced with traditions and mores that are not his own. Fortunately, a character with the necessary social IQ to thrive in one culture is usually perfectly capable of learning and applying the rules of another.

• In certain situations (as determined by the Storyteller), a character’s other social Abilities (such as Seduction or Diplomacy) will be limited by their Etiquette. Similarly, a successful Etiquette roll might offer an additional advantage, such as when exercising Leadership…or Subterfuge.

• High Society: Social graces are your forté. Through a blend of cultured manners and people skills, you know how to make a good impression. Given the elaborate gamesmanship and baroque expectations found at certain levels of society (and the local customs of cultures other than your own), this can grant an extremely valuable edge in negotiations, seductions, and other forms of diplomacy. And because social rules often exclude everyone except “the right sort of people,” this Skill provides a passkey to many important engagements.
  • Narratively, expect that characters without the ‘High Society’ specialty are much less likely to be taken seriously by the wealthy and privileged elite.

FIREARMS

Description: This Skill represents the basic aptitude for cleaning, recognizing, and accurately firing most forms of small arms. After all, executing a mortal with a sword starts investigations. Clawing someone to ribbons tears the edges of the Masquerade. So even supernatural creatures adapt, and many have devoted their energies to learning how to kill with guns. Sticking a klaive in the back of a Wyrm-tainted CEO is a gilt-edged invitation to the police, but blowing him away at an ATM can look like just another mugging gone wrong.

Allowed Specialties: Assault Rifles, Black Powder Guns, Fast Draw, Heavy Weapons, Hunting Rifles, Pistols, Revolvers, Shotguns, Sniper Rifles, Submachine Guns, Trick Shots

Rules: A character with the Firearms Skill knows how to kill things with guns. This Skill represents a broad knowledge and familiarity with all kinds of guns, whether it’s a .22 pistol or an AR-15.

A character with at least two dots in Firearms knows her way around a range, ammunition types, and the pros and cons of various makes and models. This Skill can also be used to unjam guns (Wits + Firearms), yet major repairs or custom modifications are the province of the Crafts Skill (with the Gunsmith specialty).

Most specialties are self-explanatory except the following:

• By reflexively rolling Dexterity + Firearms with the Fast Draw specialty, you can draw a weapon and have it poised for use, just as if it had been in your hand all along. The difficulty depends on how securely stowed the weapon is — a gun hidden in your underwear is harder to reach than one in a belt holster!
  • Success allows you to draw your gun without being penalized the usual -1 dice for bringing a weapon to bear in combat.
  • When appropriate, your Fast Draw successes can be added to your Initiative – but only in Storyteller-determined situations where all characters are drawing and firing guns, such as during a ‘Mexican Standoff’, and only for the first round.

• Heavy Weapons: It requires the proper training and experience (i.e., a military background) to qualify for the heavy weapons specialty. There’s nowhere in Los Angeles where you’re going to learn how to operate a 40mm grenade launcher without getting in serious trouble. It covers heavy machine guns, bazookas, RPGs, grenade launchers, and so on.
  • Heavy Weapons never benefit from rolling 10’s – it’s enough to be allowed to use them at all.

• Trick Shots: You benefit from the specialty bonus whenever utilizing a firearm in a non-lethal capacity (such as target shooting or a stage performance). Albeit, botching might still have terrible consequences (as more than one stage assistant has discovered).

LARCENY

Description: The Larceny Skill entails familiarity with the tools and techniques of the professional criminal. You can pick locks, forge documents by hand, crack safes, hotwire cars, break into places, and run a mean game of three-card monte. Larceny doesn’t just cover breaking systems and picking pockets — it’s also used to set up “unbreakable” security, notice pickpockets, and deduce where thieves broke in. The Skill doesn’t extend to computer forgery, or to advanced security systems like video surveillance and alarm systems — those fall under the auspices of the Computer and Technology Knowledges, respectively.

This Skill entails familiarity with the tools and techniques for the sorts of physical manipulation typically associated with criminal activity. Picking locks, manual forgery, safecracking, simple hotwiring, various forms of breaking and entering, and even sleight-of-hand all fall under the auspices of Larceny. Larceny is useful not only for theft, but also for setting up “the unbeatable system” or deducing where a thief broke in. This skill does not confer any aptitude with advanced security or anti-crime technologies such as video surveillance or alarm systems — those are covered by the Technology

Allowed Specialties: Forgery

• The Forgery specialty allows you to falsify permits, cards and documents. When falsifying such forms, you usually have to know what you’re doing before you start, have the right materials at hand, and check your work before putting the papers to the test. Given the prevalence of magnetic strips, holographic designs, and microscopic inserts, it’s really hard to perfectly fake anything but the most basic items.
  • In game terms, traditional forgery requires two rolls: An Intelligence + Streetwise roll to falsify the appropriate details, and a Dexterity + Streetwise roll in order to create usable copies.
  • The difficulty of the rolls depends on the subject, the forger’s familiarity with the appropriate knowledge, and the materials he’s using to make the forgery. Faking the handwriting of someone you know is simple, while creating false passports from a foreign government is challenging at best. A decent forgery might require a few dots in Law, Technology, and possibly Computer if the documents involve holograms or magnetic strips. Sophisticated documents cannot be faked without the proper equipment. The days when you could hand-forge a hundred-dollar bill are over.
  • When creating the copies, the player can use only as many dice on his Dexterity + Streetwise roll as he had successes with the initial roll. Jape, for example, could use only three dice if she rolled three successes on that Intelligence + Streetwise roll. Each success reflects a higher level of quality: one success creates a sloppily passable fake, while three successes produces a document that would fool most casual observers and five successes crafts a dazzling forgery. Failure reflects an obvious fake, while a botched roll creates a forgery that looks good until someone important examines it.

MELEE

Description: Weapons are extensions of your own limbs, and you know how to use them with brutal efficiency. When fists and feet just aren’t enough to get the job done, this Skill literally gives you the fighting edge… or the blunt instrument, if need be. Melee grants your character a working knowledge of weaponry and its practical effects in combat. Certain groups, like gangs or martial arts fellowships, prize skill at arms; if you wanna hang with such people, this Trait is essential to your credibility… and perhaps your survival, too. Certain weapon maneuvers (like tangling someone up in a chain) may be used only with certain weapons or with weapons-based martial arts. 

Allowed Specialties: A

PERFORMANCE

Description: The Performance Skill covers a character’s ability with performance arts, including singing, dancing, acting, and music. She knows about the history of her art, and has a broad repertoire of pieces that she can perform from a variety of time periods. This Skill combines technical aptitude with the ability to hook an audience and keep them enraptured with your show. A player must always choose a specialty in Performance.

Allowed Specialties: A

SECURITY

Description: Locks are for morons. In our high-tech era, anything worth keeping is guarded by advanced security systems. As a specialist in such systems, you can analyze, install, access, and – when necessary – subvert or disable them. A common vocation among Technocratic operatives and their enemies, this Skill handles networks that turn a sneak-thief’s world upside-down. In game terms, this Ability lets you set up, maintain, and infiltrate elaborate security installations: video cameras, laser-triggers, pressure-sensitive plates, and so on. Obviously, such tasks demand time and focus, plus the occasional bit of magick or Enlightened procedure. Given the intricate technology involved in security networks, other Abilities in Mage 20, Chapter Six (Computer, Hypertech, Technology, and so forth) often come into play as well; the Security Skill could tell you where to place the cameras, but it won’t help you hack their monitoring network! Appropriate task rolls include Perception + Security (to scope out the system), Intelligence + Security (to install or disable a system), Wits + Security (to spot hidden cameras or tricks), or even Dexterity + Security (to perform the famous Hollywood dodge-the-laser-sensors-with-fancy-moves stunt). For rule systems related to security networks, see the Computer Systems presented in Chapter Two, pp. 116-127.

Allowed Specialties: A

SURVIVAL

Description: In the modern consumer age, most folks have forgotten how to survive without a store close by. Not you, though. A combination of learned knowledge and animal instinct helps you locate sources of food, water, shelter, and relative safety. You can probably find your way through the wilderness or urban wastelands, puzzling out the local hazards long enough to keep you alive… at least for now. Very basic survival skills apply to almost any environment; advanced tasks, however – or extremely harsh or alien environments – demand specific Survival specialties. A bit of backpacking experience, for example, won’t help you much in Death Valley or downtown Mumbai. A variant on this Skill, Urban Survival, gives you the expertise to live off the streets, dive Dumpsters, and figure out where – and where not – to grab a nap in the cities and suburbs of this World of Darkness.

Allowed Specialties: A

TECHNOLOGY

Description: In our high-tech world, this Skill often comes in handy. A catch-all group of familiar tech affinities, Technology reflects a working knowledge of typical developed-world gadgets. Most urbanized characters have at least one dot in Technology but seldom more than three. This Ability covers simple operations and repairs; for advanced forms of technology and hypertech, see Crafts above, or Computers and Secondary Skills below. For game systems that deal with mundane tech, see Inventing, Modifying, and Improving Technology in Chapter Nine, (pp. 463-464).

Allowed Specialties: A

ACADEMICS

Description: Despite the failings of the American system, mages cannot afford to be ignorant. Whether they’re self-taught, unusually accomplished, or schooled in some system beyond the typical public education found in the U.S., most Awakened folks display an unusual degree of scholastic achievement. This Knowledge reflects your overall academic understanding – language skills, math, history, and so forth. As with Crafts, you should choose a specialty to reflect your greatest area of expertise. Even outside that specialty, however, your Academics rating reflects your general competence for scholastic subjects. And though every mage ought to have at least one dot in this Trait, many groups (especially Hermetics, Etherites, Solificati, and the various branches of the Technocracy) advocate much higher levels of education and knowledge.

Allowed Specialties: A

BUREAUCRACY

Description: This skill represents a character’s understanding of The System, and their ability to navigate and abuse it. This knowledge is useful for bypassing (or creating) red tape, ensuring important things are “misfiled”, and just plain simplifying ordinary life – Bureaucracy will help you get in and out of the DMV at record speeds

Allowed Specialties: A

COMPUTER

Description: One of the cornerstones of the world as we know it now, the computer was still a pretty strange device in 1993; by 2013, however, most industrial-world folks under 50 years old (and many people far older than that) know their way around basic home and office computer systems. Computers are also far easier to use in 2015 than they were in 1993, and so the degree to which your character understands and employs a computer – and the degree to which such understanding is common knowledge – will depend a lot on your Mage chronicle’s timeframe. Basic proficiency with computers is a lot more typical in 2015, after all, than it was in the early ‘90s! This Knowledge reflects your understanding of Information Technology; a single dot involves basic computer use (whatever that looks like in your chronicle), whereas higher ratings show a deeper understanding of hardware, software, interface, the Internet, and IT culture in general. Certain tasks (like advanced programming or repair) and systems (especially the arcane tech employed by technomancers) demand at least three or four dots in this Trait before your character can even begin to understand them.

As a general rule for mages who employ computers as instruments of focus, assume that a mage cannot channel a Sphere Effect through a computer unless he has at least as many dots in Computer as he has in that Sphere. If Max, for example, has only one dot in Computer Knowledge, then he cannot use Sphere Effects of Rank 2 or higher through a computer because he simply doesn’t understand computers well enough to do so. For details about Spheres, their Ranks, and their Effects, see Chapter Ten.

Allowed Specialties: A

COSMOLOGY

Description: This trait represents a character’s knowledge of otherworlds beyond the earthly plane, notably the Umbral Realms, and how to traverse them, spot hazards, deal with entities and recognize opportunities and threats as you encounter them.

Allowed Specialties: A

ENIGMAS

Description: You can wrap your head around concepts that give other people headaches. Puzzles, riddles, artistic themes, uncanny entities, arcane secrets, bizarre methods of communication – you might not understand the specifics just yet, but you can hash out enough comprehension to get by. Especially in a mage’s world, many things transcend rational explanation… and that realm of strangeness is where the Enigmas Knowledge takes you. Whether you need to make jumps of logic, wade into metaphysical currents, spot clues in apparent chaos, or figure out what’s being said waaaaaaaay between the lines (or totally outside them), this Trait is essential.

Enigmas represents a character’s ability to solve logic problems, puzzles, and mysteries. With it, he can create or break ciphers, utilize puzzle boxes, or match wits with a particularly confounding nemesis. Enigmas is essential for divining hidden trods, deciphering dreams and prophecy, and answering riddles of the Dreaming’s guardians.

Allowed Specialties: A

FINANCE

Description: Money is the ultimate human magic trick, and you know how it works. Trade, trends, investments, markets, and risks provide you with mental stimulation, Awakened/ Enlightened power, economic fortitude, and – most likely – plenty of money (in game terms, the Resources Background). An essential Trait for Syndicate Technocrats, this Knowledge enriches wizards, Adepts, mad scientists, and sharpwitted witches everywhere and provides a key component of the Ars Cupiditae – a venerable form magick based upon desire. (See The Art of Desire/ Hypereconomics in Chapter Ten, p.573.)

Allowed Specialties: A

GREMAYRE

Description: Gremayre is a character’s understanding of magic, lore, and the ways of Glamour. She uses it when creating an oath, weaving an enchantment, forging a treasure, and understanding faerie history. Gremayre is essential for comprehending all things related to the Dreaming, including mortal and Prodigal magic and mystic practices.

Allowed Specialties: A

INVESTIGATION

Description: Clues of a more mundane nature are yours to unravel. Whether you specialize in crime scenes, information retrieval, political intrigues, or other mysteries, you know what to look for, where to look for it, and how to piece it together once those pieces start becoming obvious. Your training might be informal (like, say, a taste for detective novels), but it features basic – and possibly advanced – criminology techniques as well as logistical guesswork, potential sources of information, deductive methodology, and well-honed instincts that turn raw data into potential conclusions.

Allowed Specialties: A

LAW

Description: You might not be the Law, but you understand how it works. The ins and outs of cop-shops, police procedures, ranks and files, end-arounds, and other essential components of your local justice system are yours to know. Different regions, of course, have very different police systems; your grasp of New Orleans law enforcement won’t help much in Tokyo. Still, modern police departments have certain elements in common, and this Knowledge can help you suss them out even if you have to beat a much higher difficulty rating in order to do so.

Allowed Specialties: A

MEDICINE

Description: When folks get broken, you know more or less how to fix them. One or two dots in this Ability reflect basic First Aid skills, whereas higher ratings represent advanced training and experience. (Note that said training and experience might not be formal and licensed training and experience…) With Medicine, you’ve learned enough about human and humanoid bodies to treat, harm, and potentially diagnose their injuries and illnesses. Healing magicks often depend upon such understanding, and an angry mage with this Trait can be extremely dangerous! For details about injury and healing, see Health and Injury in Chapter Nine, (pp. 406-409). For information about medicine as a magickal practice, see Medicine Work in Chapter Ten, (p. 581).

Allowed Specialties: A

OCCULT

Description: Aren’t mages occult by their very nature? Yes and no. This Knowledge represents a generalized comprehension of the mystic world as most Sleepers understand it; in short, then, such knowledge is often misleading, incomplete, or flat-out wrong. A decent rating in this Trait (three dots or higher) helps you sort the truth from the bullshit… but by then, you’ve also begun to understand how deep the occult rabbit-hole really goes. “Occult” means hidden for very good reasons, and even the most skillful occultists often don’t know nearly as much as they think they do. Being a mage does not automatically confer accurate understanding of other practices – in fact, it often muddies the waters even more! Still, this Ability grants you a decent overview of mystic practices, philosophies, lore, history, arcane cultures, and so-called secrets. Of course, they’re all secrets by definition… or at least that’s the theory, anyway.

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 facts. 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 vampire lore, as well as a good grounding in other aspects of the occult. At the very least, you can discern what is patently False.

Allowed Specialties: A

POLITICS

Description: Political power can seem like magic. With a few words in the right person’s ear or a form filled out the proper way, you can make people disappear, change identities, incite scandals, and make or unmake kings. For certain mages – especially Technocrats, Hermetics, Ecstatics, and Virtual Adepts – such power is more effective than obvious spells; in a global era, the ability to throw lightning bolts pales in comparison to the clout to stage a riot … or a coup. Literally the “art of cities,” this Knowledge helps your character work the reins of power – government agencies, law enforcement bureaus, celebrity culture, and so on. In game terms, this Trait combines a number of separate Knowledges from previous editions (Power-Brokering, Covert Culture, etc.) into a unified understanding of civil influence. As with several other Knowledges, you can use the Well-Skilled Craftsman option to purchase several specialties once you reach four dots in the Trait. Each specialty reflects a different sphere of influence.

For coincidental Mind-based Effects, you could also use Politics as a focus instrument, assuming that you’re willing to let that Effect take a bit of time. A clever mage, for instance, could implant an otherwise ridiculous idea (“the President is a Muslim Nazi space alien”) in the minds of a few influential parties and then let that idea spread through political channels over time. This sort of thing cannot be done abruptly, though; political influence is a subtle tool, and vulgar Effects weaken its influence.

Unlike stealth or violence, the Politics Trait demands a certain amount of patience and finesse. You can’t just charm a district attorney and then walk away from a murder rap – there are too many people and procedures involved in law enforcement situations. Still, this Knowledge helps your character know who those people are and which strings can make them dance. Though it’s not a glamorous skill, it might be among the most potent tools in the modern world.

Allowed Specialties: A

RITUALS

Description: Rituals are an important part of werewolf life. Ritual behavior helps a werewolf control the Rage within. This Knowledge lets the character know about the traditions, mysteries, and ceremonies of the Garou, including how to participate in common rites and how to behave properly towards elders and leaders. Some werewolf rituals are more than formalized behavior: they call upon ancient spirit magics to powerful effect. A character cannot learn a rite of higher level than his Rituals rating.

Allowed Specialties: A

SCIENCE

Description: A small word for vast ideas, science essentially means “to know.” In game terms, this Trait reflects an understanding of scientific principles, research, history, and applications. Every Technocrat or technomancer must have a few dots in this Ability, and most have quite a few of them. In the modern world, the majority of people have at least one dot in Science; even if you believe in God or magick, you can still accept science as a valid approach to reality. (Really? Yep – see the sidebar SCIENCE!!!) The Science Trait covers a rudimentary understanding of common principles, plus a given focus of specialization. High ratings reflect increasing knowledge about the various sciences, with deepening understanding of your specialization. As with Crafts, you define one specialty for your character’s primary Science and then purchase different specialties to reflect different sciences. Also, as with Crafts, your Storyteller may allow the Well-Skilled Craftsman option that lets you buy multiple Sciences for fewer points. This way, a well-trained scientist can master a variety of fields. For science- and tech-based practices see Alchemy, Art of Desire/ Hypereconomics, Cybernetics, Hypertech, Reality- Hacking and Weird Science under Practice: The Shape of Focus, Chapter Ten, (pp. 572-586).

Allowed Specialties: A

ARTISTRY

Description: Artistry reflects your ability with a visual or performing art: drawing, singing, acting, calligraphy, painting, dance, sculpture, and so forth. Given such talents, you can work within your chosen medium to produce works of startling power. Higher levels reflect your ability to impress your audience. As with other related general Abilities, each specialty reflects a different medium or field, of artistic endeavor. Each type of art – dance, painting, etc. – must be purchased as a separate specialty.

Allowed Specialties: Acting, Ballet, Calligraphy, CGI, Dancing, Painting, Sculpting, Singing, Specific Musical Instruments (Guitar, Drums, Piano, etc)

Rules: You gain a free, mandatory specialty upon taking your first dot in this Ability. You cannot benefit from this Ability, when attempting a non-specialized task. You simply roll the base attribute.

Story Example #1: “It’s not the message of the song – it’s how good you look singing it. Roll Appearance + Artistry (difficulty 6) to have your choice of groupies.”

Story Example #2: “You are engaged in a cooperative rote, using shamanic rituals to help achieve a higher state of awareness. One participant might roll Perception + Artistry to maintain a perfect heartbeat-like rhythm with traditional drums, and another might roll Charisma + Artistry or Stamina + Artistry to chant or dance themselves into an ecstatic trance.”

BLATANCY

Description: Almost anyone can learn to fool an audience. Blatancy is the ability to fool yourself. In other words, to make yourself believe something that you know is not really true. Self-deception has an ancient pedigree, and as any Stalinist functionary, George Orwell, Self-Help guru, pick-up artist or Pavlovian researcher can assure you, it can definitely be learned. It can be silly, (‘Think happy thoughts’), piteous (“Dad’ll be home one day…He just went out for a pack of cigarettes!”), cynical (‘Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia’) or clinical (‘Holding a pencil with your teeth forces your mouth into a smiling position which subconsciously improves your mood’).

Allowed Specialties: You can specialize in the effects of each Sphere (Correspondence, Entropy, Mind, Forces, etc).

Rules: Mechanically, it works like this:

• Scenario #1: If you want to pull off a magickal effect that you think is coincidental, and I think is legit, then this Ability isn’t needed.
• Scenario #2: If you want to pull off a magickal effect that you think either is or /could/ maybe be coincidental, and I think is kinda bullshit, then Blatancy comes into play.
• Scenario #3: If I think something is total bullshit, then Blatancy does not come into play. But if there is any kind of wriggle room or plausible flex, I will typically let you roll this.

If it’s Scenario #2, then you roll Blatancy vs a base difficulty of 5 + the highest Sphere Rank. Your successes on this roll will determine how many Arete successes of what would otherwise have been a vulgar effect, may be treated as coincidental instead.

As you can see, it’s not going to help much with throwing fireballs or turning people into newts. But it could still make a massive difference.

Note, if your Arete roll has more successes than your Blatancy roll, then it is still vulgar, unless you spend a Willpower point to concentrate and bring it back down to the number of successes you know you can get away with.

Special ST Note: This is not a House Rule. This is an optional Storyteller flavor addendum. If your character has a Merit like Concentration, Inner Strength, Time Sense, Lightning Calculator, Friendly Face or whatever – it must be a General Merit – that seems relevant to what you’re doing in some way, the ST may let you cap your Arete successes at your Blatancy successes without spending a Willpower.

COOKING

Description: Food’s your thing. You’re good at preparing it, pulling meals together from odds and ends, and noting when something’s not quite right. What good is this sort of talent for a mage? Ask any decent witch! A gifted cook can whip up an impressive meal on the go (perhaps even working some Life, Matter, Mind, or Time magicks into the mix to spoil or sweeten the food); spot tainted or poisoned chow; discern unusual ingredients (griffin, horse-meat, Soylent Green…); or create nutritious meals from whatever’s close at hand – a vital skill in the wilderness or certain Realms!

Allowed Specialties: A

DIPLOMANCY

Description: You’ve got a knack for smoothing things over, making friends, and getting people to see past their differences. When you need to, you can also back up your guile with spine. A combination of ingratiating people skills, social psychology, knowledge of the situation, and innate timing allows you to gain people’s respect and then maneuver them to your desired point of view. A good diplomat can be transparent about his motives and yet still have people doing what he wants them to do while believing it’s their idea to do so. As an adjunct to Mind-based magicks, this Talent can become a huge (and occasionally fearsome) edge in group dynamics.

Allowed Specialties: A

FORTUNE-TELLING

Description: Whether or not you actually possess accurate gifts of prophecy, you often have folks believing that you do. Scanning anything from cards to entrails to scripture verses, you can convincingly predict future events, read a person, or otherwise get someone to believe in your incredible prescience. This makes an excellent instrument for Mind-, Entropy- or Time-based magicks, although its believability (and thus, its ability to be considered coincidental) will depend upon both your audience and your own beliefs. A true believer will easily accept an accurate Tarot reading, but a skeptic might prove far harder to convince.

A Technocratic variation, Assessment Analysis, does exactly the same thing but with a very different explanation. Instead of using symbolic or religious trappings, such Analysis involves psychological cues, deductive reasoning, body language, and other methods to read a person’s inner landscape, predict potential behaviors, or estimate the probabilities of future events. This lets Assessment Specialists size people up at a glance, determine accurate calculations, or strip away deceptions to perceive the truth beneath them. In the modern world, this sort of thing tends to be coincidental, so long as the Specialist can point out cues or clues that might lead to a rational conclusion.

Allowed Specialties: A

HIGH RITUAL

Description: You’ve studied not only the techniques and trappings of ritual practices but also the symbolic, psychological, and metaphysical principles behind the core observances of your chosen Affiliation and Practice. In general, this Talent reflects a familiarity with rituals appropriate to your spiritual or magickal pursuits; a Catholic priest from the Celestial Chorus understands the various Church ceremonies as they interweave with the Chorus’ magickal techniques, an Eleusinian priestess knows her way around Greek mystery rites and every Hermetic Apprentice spends most of their waking hours memorizing tomes of such material.

Allowed Specialties*: The Practice associated with this Ability is a required specialty.

Rules: Game-wise, this one is easy. It replaces Stamina (in every particular) for most Great Works, and it takes a lot of time and experience to learn it.

• Note that not every sect, affiliation or sub-faction has put together an equal body of literature and technique when it comes to working the greatest and most complex feats of magick. You have, say, the Order of Hermes on the extreme ‘high ritual’ end of the spectrum, and are so iconic in that respect, that the ability itself is named after their Practice of ‘High Ritual Magick’. And then at the low end of the spectrum, you have random Orphans, Hollow Ones, solitary Dreamspeakers and any unsophisticated or mostly instinctual pursuit. (Don’t feel bad for these guys: Their Focus often lets them get away with other things that more technical Practices don’t.)

• Most (non-Hermetic or Celestial Chorus) Awakened don’t think of what they’re doing as ‘high ritual’ at all. Indeed, this ability could just as easily be called ‘Due Diligence’ for say, the NWO or Iteration X data analyst.

• It requires a relevant Practice to learn, and a relevant teacher. Most Tradition Affiliations can justify it up to around 3 dots, except for the most isolated subfactions.

• High Ritual-relevant Practices always have a lot of other components to them, like material (altars, robes, wine, communion vessels – or a lab, garage, skunkworks, etc), an audience (congregation, cult, etc) or specific restrictions (timing or taboos). It usually takes some kind of infrastructure or funding to make them happen. Where they don’t require much in one thing (like a rain dance), they tend to require a lot more of other things (like participants or exact seasonal timing).

• In some cases, uncovering magickal artifacts or ancient lore, or some kind of spirit quest, might be required to either increase a character’s High Ritual (especially if they’re not part of an organized faction) or to achieve a temporary bonus for a specific Great Work.

INSTRUCTION

Description: You’re really good at relaying information, teaching material, and helping other folks understand potentially complex principles. It’s not so much that you’re an expert on the subject at hand (though you might be), but that you’ve got a knack for taking your subject and making it easier to comprehend. A very useful Talent for mentors, professors and, of course, instructors for any given course of study, this Ability helps your character share his expertise with other characters.

In game terms, you can use Instruction to train other characters in any Skill or Knowledge that your character possesses. (At the Storyteller’s discretion, Talents might be teachable too, assuming that the student already has at least one dot in the Trait in question; this way, the instructor helps that character refine a knack she already has.) You cannot raise another character’s Trait higher than the level your own character has achieved, or teach something your own character doesn’t already have. Let’s say that Legacy Brown wants to teach Spider Chase some medical skills. Legacy has Medicine 3, so she could teach Spider up to three dots in Medicine before hitting the limits of her own knowledge. For each month of tutoring, Legacy’s player rolls her Manipulation + Instruction against a difficulty of 11, minus Spider’s Intelligence rating; if Spider has Intelligence 4, that difficulty would be 7 (11 – 4). For each success rolled, Spider’s player gets to spend an experience point; if Legacy gets four successes, Spider spends four points toward Medicine. This way, a skillful teacher can speed up the learning process for new Abilities.

As an alternate rule, the Storyteller may decide to allow each success to save one experience point from the cost of learning or raising an Ability; in this case, Spider’s player would save four points when buying and raising the Medicine Knowledge. For this option, the instructor’s player rolls only once, not once per month. This way, you can teach Abilities faster and cheaper in a chronicle where time is of the essence. This option, however, should be not combined with the normal rule. Choose one or the other, not both.

In story terms, this Talent reflects a teacher with an engaging and memorable style. Even if you don’t get into the point-spending element of education, your character is one of those teachers that students recall years or even decades after they’ve spent time under his instruction.

INTRIGUE

Description: Machiavelli’s ghost smiles upon you. In the vicious whirlpools of backstabbing power, you’re a force to be reckoned with. A combination of instincts, audacity, knowledge, guile, and ruthlessness gives you insights and edges that most folks lack. You may serve a greater purpose, work toward hidden agendas, or simply enjoy making puppets dance. Whatever your ultimate purpose, you’re a player, not a pawn, in your personal Game of Thrones.

Allowed Specialties: A

INTUITION

Description: Also known as Instinct, this Talent represents a primal sort of perception that runs beneath your conscious mind. Essentially, you possess an animal-like awareness of your surroundings and circumstances. Though it’s not mind-reading per se, your Intuition helps you spot cues about people’s moods and intentions, notice when “something’s not quite right,” and recognize patterns and connections that your conscious mind might otherwise have missed. Combat vets, street survivors, primal folks, and animal-favoring shapechangers tend to develop such instincts as a survival skill; even then, though, such awareness comes more from innate talent than from practiced techniques. In situations where your character might pick up on subconscious clues or subtle giveaways, add your Intuition to a Mental Attribute to see whether or not that character’s instincts kick in.

Allowed Specialties: A

LUCID DREAMING

Description: Most folks float through dreams with no sense of control. Not you. When you choose to assert yourself in the dreamlands, you may shift the tone of a dream, change locations, confront nightmares head-on, or even construct dreams of your choosing. Cosmologically, you know how to tap into the essence of Maya and turn it in your favor. With practice, you might create a Demesne Background (see below) that suits your temperament. In game terms, this Talent lets you manipulate your surroundings in a dream (Perception + Lucid Dreaming, difficulty 6); shape new structures (difficulty 8); or take complete control over that dream and your place in it (difficulty 9). You can use this Talent to direct conscious meditations, too (difficulties 5, 7, and 8, respectively), which can help you gain insights, unravel riddles, and achieve a state of calm or resolution. If you’re meditating or dreaming about a particular enigma, then your successes – after you wake up – count as if they were successes on an Enigmas roll. Jennifer Rollins, as an example, meditates about a puzzle she wants to solve, and so her successes with a Lucid Dreaming roll count as successes used to solve that puzzle; once she leaves the trance, she understands how those pieces fit together. For the Demesne Background, see that entry in this chapter, (pp. 310-311). For game systems involved in riddles, puzzles, and enigmas, see Art and Science and Social Occasions and Intrigue in Chapter Nine, (p. 404).

Allowed Specialties: A

SCROUNGING

Description: Dude! Where’d you find that? You’re pretty good at spotting goodies in the oddest places. A skilled scavenger, you can discover all kinds of unlikely stuff. Granted, said stuff has to be there first… but then, if you’re a mage, this Talent provides a wonderful excuse for coincidental magick. Even without magick, though, the toss-out nature of consumer culture often puts the odds in your favor.

Allowed Specialties: A

SEDUCTION

Description: You’re good at being bad. A master of attraction, you can draw people into engagements they might otherwise ignore or avoid. We’re not talking about simple chemistry here, although you can certainly augment your chemistry with a little Life or Mind magick. This Talent reflects the combination of carnal allure and emotional manipulation that can wind people around your fingers (or other parts of your anatomy…) whenever you want their attention. Seduction isn’t always sexual. It does, however, play off the target’s desires. Note that you don’t have to be gorgeous to use this Ability; many seducers, in fact, seem unremarkable until they put this gift to work. For game systems associated with social machinations, see the Social Occasions and Intrigue entry in Chapter Nine.

Allowed Specialties: A

STYLE

Description: You know how to look good. And although you’ve got an eye for fashion, this Talent’s not so much about what you wear as how you wear it. Style helps you make good impressions based on clothes, bearing, behavior, and appearance… and while it’s most obvious on pretty people, it can have striking effects on those who otherwise look plain.

Allowed Specialties: A

ACROBATICS

Description: Dazzling feats of athletic grace are yours to perform. Despite the limitations of physics and biology, you defy gravity and make it look easy. Naturally, there’s intense practice and dedication involved in such discipline – it didn’t come easily, and you must hone such skills with constant exercise. Still, your flexible precision seems downright magical and, especially if you add in Life, Time, and Correspondence Spheres, might be literally inhuman!

Allowed Specialties: A

ARCHERY

Description: You can shoot humanity’s most venerable long-distance weapon: the bow. Beyond its obvious practical applications, this Skill can become a meditative art as well – and is practiced as such by Zen archers and other enthusiasts. Because bows launch wooden shafts, they make good weapons against vampires… and because they’re almost silent, bows offer efficient gear for assassins and spies as well.

Allowed Specialties: A

DEMOLITIONS

Description: You know how to make things go BOOM, usually without blowing yourself to bits in the process. This perilous specialty becomes especially important in the new millennium, when Improvised Explosive Devices are weapons of choice and opportunity. Such Knowledge confers a working familiarity with explosive chemistry and tech, an understanding of common designs, a knack for figuring blast patterns and effects, and – at its higher levels – the expertise to defuse many explosive devices too. What it does not do is provide foolproof explosive technology. Once things explode, chaos always takes over.

Allowed Specialties: A

ELUSION

Description: You’re good at giving people the slip. With enough cover to work with (crowds, underbrush, rooms filled with boxes, etc.), you can shake pursuit, hide from observation, trick pursuers, and blend in with the landscape. Cleverly employed, Elusion can help you puzzle out new surroundings (Intelligence + Elusion), confuse your pursuers (Manipulation + Elusion), spot traps and hiding places (Perception + Elusion), duck quickly behind cover (Dexterity + Elusion), and trick antagonists into following false leads or falling into hazards (Wits + Elusion). And, of course, you also know what to look for if someone else is trying to hide from you… (Again, Perception + Elusion.) In itself, this Skill is not magickal – it’s all about knowing how to use your surroundings to your advantage. Certain magickal Effects, however, can bend light and sound (the Forces Sphere), shift probability (Entropy), influence bystanders (Mind), or spot “perfect moments” (Time) that take your mundane skill to the next level, often without so much as rippling the Consensus.

Allowed Specialties: A

ENERGY WEAPONS

Description: When the only things standing between innocent bystanders and a raging Reality Deviant are you, your blaster, and the ability to use it, this becomes a must-have Skill. Laser guns, particle-beam accelerators, plasma hand-cannons, ectoplasmic disrupters, and other advanced weaponry demand advanced handling; any ape can fire a revolver, but only specially trained personnel know how to employ hypertech weaponry. This Ability reflects a basic understanding of energy weapon technology (or at least the ability to turn it on, point it in the right direction, and not blow your own hand off with it), and the essential skills involved in handling, maintaining, adjusting, loading, and storing the tools of Technocratic security. For a small selection of energy weapons, see The Toybox in Appendix II.

Allowed Specialties: A

FENCING

Description: The Art of the Blade, Fencing reflects expertise with an array of European sword-and-dagger-fighting techniques, while Kenjutsu reflects Japanese samurai swordsmanship. Other cultural forms of bladed martial arts, such as Chinese wushu weapon techniques, can be considered as “fencing” for the purposes of dice pools and maneuvers; just change the name to whatever art is appropriate for that character. At its lowest levels, such knowledge is purely sporting; an accomplished fencer or kendoka, though, can be deadly in true hand-to-hand combat. As with most martial arts, a dedicated study of swordsmanship includes philosophy, meditation, vigorous exercise, and a refinement of mind, body, and soul… which makes it an excellent magickal focus technique. In game terms, this Skill lets a character use an array of specialized combat maneuvers; see Expanded Combat Systems: Advanced Weapon Techniques in Chapter Two, pp. 106-111

Allowed Specialties: A

GAMBLING

Description: Games of nerve and chance are your specialties. Even without the aid of Entropy Arts (which can add a devastating edge to this Skill), you’re good at gauging odds, bluffing rivals, spotting cheats, hedging bets, faking people out, and employing the mind-games and slight-of-hand essential to card games, betting, and apparently random luck.

Allowed Specialties: A

HYPERTECH

Description: There’s mundane technology, and then there’s the stuff that technomages command. This latter tech is not, of course, “magick” – perish that thought! Still, its principles transcend the limited understanding of the Masses and their convenient little world. The advanced principles employed by the Technocracy, Virtual Adepts, various mad scientists, and even the technomancers of other, more traditional pursuits all range outside everyday sciences. These arcane technologies – nanotech, Trinary computing, extradimensional travel, and so on – seem mysterious even to many of the rank-and-file who employ them. You, however, understand how such things work… and through such understanding, you can modify existing Devices, create your own, or employ machines created by other technomancer mages.

At Ranks 1 and 2, a character with this Skill understands only the principles behind her own group’s Devices; an Etherite, for example, can puzzle out the workings of a colleague’s contraptions, but she would wind up stymied by, say, an Iteration X Device. At Rank 3 and above, however, that same mag… I mean, scientist could decipher the odd perversions of scientific truth behind such alien Devices – and, by extension, could use or even modify them. In game terms, this means that a successful Hypertech roll would allow a technomancer to employ a tool or Device that would not normally work for him due to its secure or unconventional design. If you’re running a Technocratic operative, this is a pretty big deal; the warped confections of mad scientists begin to make a practical kind of sense… which means, of course, that you can now convert those insane Devices to more sensible purposes.

Your Hypertech rating cannot be higher than your rating in the Technology Skill. If you don’t understand the basics, after all, how will you wrap your head around the big stuff? As with the Computer Knowledge, your ability to focus Sphere Effects through hypertech may be limited to the dots in your Hypertech Trait. For details about technomagickal practices, see the Cybernetics, Hypertech, and Weird Science entries, and their associated paradigms and instruments, in the Practices section of Chapter Ten.

MARTIAL ARTS

Description: The many refinements of hand-to-hand combat have produced thousands of martial art styles, from brutal Greek pankration to sublime t’ai chi. You pursue one or more of these disciplines, so your fighting techniques are more effective than simple punches and kicks. In game terms, the Martial Arts Skill reflects hard-won expertise in some combat form. Because of the intense training, specific techniques, applied philosophies, and discipline involved, this Skill must be learned through practice and taught by a teacher who’s skilled in the same martial arts form you pursue. A savate teacher, after all, can’t teach you drunken-monkey kung fu. In return, this Skill grants access to a variety of special combat maneuvers described in the Combat section of Chapter Nine. An accomplished martial artist can also use her practice to focus magickal Effects: powerful strikes, healing techniques, Mind-based powers, and so on. (See the Martial Arts entries in Chapter Nine, pp. 423-426 and Chapter Ten, pp. 580-581.) And because martial arts involve scientific applications, and are very much a part of accepted reality, Technocrats often use them too. If it’s good enough for Agent Smith, after all, then any good Technocrat can employ such arts! In real life, most martial artists pursue many different styles. Rather than buy this Skill separately for every different form your character knows, you may choose the Well-Skilled Craftsman option to reflect a different style of combat. Someone with lots of dots and specialties also has lots of options when it comes to kicking ass.

As suggested above under the Optional Rule: Minimum Abilities, a mage who uses martial arts as the practice and/ or instrument of her magickal focus should have at least one dot in Martial Arts for every dot she has in the highest Sphere she uses for martial arts-based Effects. Otherwise, the Effect-Ranks she can focus through her martial arts are limited to the dots she has in this Ability; a mage with Martial Arts 1, therefore, could not focus Rank 2-5 Effects through her martial arts. As noted earlier, Chapter Ten contains details about focus, Sphere Ranks, and Effects.

MEDITATION

Description: Ground, center, breathe, and relax. This Skill helps you sweep aside the clutter of everyday existence and find a spot within yourself that offers calm. Depending on your preferred style, your background, and the purpose for which you practice meditation, this could involve simple quiet time, elaborate postures and breath control, religious devotion, and even ecstatic dance or prayer. In game terms, the Meditation Skill can help your character make up for lost sleep, hibernate, gain artistic or mystical insights, unravel patterns or enigmas, or refresh your Quintessence rating (see the Avatar and Quintessence Trait entries later in this chapter). A character with Meditation often has at least one dot in the Esoterica Knowledge Trait. Many forms of magick, or feats like astral travel, also use meditation as an instrument of focus – see Chapter Ten, (pp. 594-596), for details.

Allowed Specialties: A

MICROGRAVITY OPS

Description: Things get weird when you leave Earth’s gravity. Although there’s no such thing as true “zero-G,” the radically altered gravitational forces found in strange Realms, spacecraft or Etherspace demand specialized training and experience. Without the Microgravity Operations Skill, a character in such environments cannot use dice from any Physical Ability; sure, he’s still strong or dexterous, but that martial arts training won’t do him a damn bit of good when the physics upon which those arts depend have been replaced by micro-gravity. A rare skill-set outside the ranks of Technocratic Void Engineers, Microgravity Operations teaches you how to move and act in altered gravity. Each dot in this Skill allows your character to use a dot in his other physical Abilities. Let’s say that the guy mentioned above has four dots in Martial Arts; he could use one of them at Microgravity 1, two at Microgravity 2, and so on. Without such training, a person bounces and floats with very little control of personal physics; with this Skill, that same person knows how to use that environment to his advantage.

Allowed Specialties: A

NETWORKING

Description: You’re good at making contacts and working them for all they’re worth. While these networks won’t actually act on your behalf (certain Backgrounds cover that sort of thing), they’re real lifesavers when you’re trying to assemble data (Perception + Networking), get something done (Manipulation + Networking), or win someone over (Charisma or Appearance + Networking) through your various contacts. Simple tasks have lower difficulties, while obscure or difficult tasks demand much better rolls – or, in story terms, a more thorough and dedicated network. Networking demands time, access, and attention. Although cell phones and laptops can link you to your contacts in most tech-enabled locations, you still need to spend time reaching out and maintaining your network. Occasionally, they’ll ask you for favors too – you get nothing for nothing, after all! The nice thing, though, about extensive networks is that the people in them have a greater ability to help one another when need be.

Allowed Specialties: A

PILOT

Description: Most folks, when confronted with the complex control panels of conventional aircraft, don’t have the slightest idea where to start. You do. Training and experience allow you to fly, land, and control most types of Sleepertech flying machines; the higher your rating, the more sophisticated the craft.

Allowed Specialties: A

AREA KNOWLEDGE

Description: You know a certain area like the back of your hand. In game terms, choose a particular region (no larger than a city) that your character has a reason to know about. Successful Area Knowledge rolls help you get around, spot shortcuts, and grasp customs, clues, and trivia in ways no outsider could understand.

Allowed Specialties: A

COVERT CULTURE

Description: In the alphabet soup of international intrigue (CIA, NSA, ICPO, etc.), you’ve got a backstage pass at the shadow-plays. Probably thanks to hard-won experience, you can spot cues, identify agents, play connect-the-dots between government agencies, and rattle off covert operations as if they were football games. In order to put such knowledge to use, of course, you’ll need other skills to back up the things you know. Still, even James Bond needs to know who to trick, seduce, take orders from, and shoot on sight.

Allowed Specialties: A

CRYPTOGRAPHY

Description: A world full of secrets is a world filled with codes. You understand how they work, know the principles for crafting and cracking them, and have the kind of mind that curves along the proper corners when hacking various codes. A background in mathematics and historical encryption comes with this Skill, although other Abilities – Enigmas, Esoterica (Alchemy, Bibliomancy, Secret Code Languages, etc.), Science (Mathematics), and so forth – provide invaluable assistance for such tasks. Mages are really good at rendering simple things into obscure gibberish, so this is a valuable skill, though not an especially common one. With this Knowledge, you can create codes that can be broken only by someone who exceeds your Cryptography rating with her own Intelligence + Cryptography dice pool. (Someone with a dice pool of at least four dice could beat Cryptography 3, for example, but not Cryptography 4.) You can also try to unravel codes with your own Intelligence + Cryptography rolls. In both cases, the difficulty depends upon the complexity of the code and the obscurity of the elements involved. If the code demands some knowledge that the would-be cracker does not have, of course, the code remains unbreakable. Japanese cryptographers, for instance, couldn’t have deciphered the Navajo code-talker messages because they didn’t even know that the Navajo language existed. Even without such knowledge, though, a good roll can help you puzzle out the foundation of a code even if you can’t read its contents, which is often half the battle.

Allowed Specialties: A

ESOTERICA

Description: Esoteric knowledge comes in many forms: astrology, angelography, fortune-telling, yoga, herbalism, demonology, the lore of stones, even the secret code languages of occult societies. For centuries, such mysteries were the province of selected initiates; these days, it’s relatively easy to find the basics in any decent bookstore or website. Even so, the deeper levels remain obscure to all but the most devoted students of the art. Anyone can take a yoga class in the modern world, but the more arcane applications of that art demand years of practice, study, and devotion.

Game-wise, the Esoterica reflects your pursuit of an esoteric discipline which suggests the practices and instruments for your magickal focus. The Trait’s overall rating reflects your general knowledge of arcane subjects, whereas each specialty reflects your expertise within a certain field. Unlike the Occult Knowledge – which in reflects an understanding of “secret history” and shadow-cultures – Esoterica represents the practical application of unusual fields. Occult can teach your character who Aleister Crowley was, while Esoterica helps her understand what Crowley did… and to use those principles herself. In short, this Knowledge sums up a lot of previous editions’ Abilities into a single united Trait. Because esoteric disciplines are often interrelated, you can use the Well-Skilled Craftsman option to purchase a new specialty for only four experience points, assuming that you already have at least four dots in the Esoterica Knowledge, an existing specialty, and a story-based reason to learn that discipline. Say, for example, your character has four dots in Esoterica, with a specialty in Herbalism; if he gets some time to study yoga, he can spend four experience points and then add a specialty in Yoga to that Knowledge… after which time he can use yoga as a focus tool (assuming that it fits his magickal paradigm), and count 10s as two successes on mundane or magick-casting rolls that employ that practice. Given an opportunity to study and practice an art, any character can learn Esoterica. Although such disciplines don’t give magickal powers to unAwakened characters, the Knowledge lets them use mundane applications – teaching yoga classes, doing horoscopes, deciphering alchemical texts and so forth – and count 10s as two successes if and when they do so. Understanding the principles of bakemono-jutsu – the ninja “ghost technique” – won’t make you invisible, for instance, but a specialty in that esoteric technique would let you count 10s as two successes on your Stealth Skill roll. Even though they can’t employ mystic powers, non-mages can be far more knowledgeable about such subjects
than mages are. Such mentors may teach a mage this Knowledge or allow him to add another specialty to his existing expertise.

Let’s say that Dante needs to learn demonology; he goes to the best teacher he can find – an unAwakened monk named Brother Silence – and studies his ass off. In time, Dante understands the names and rituals associated with Infernal powers and can put them to practical use. In such cases, the student may indeed surpass the master, thanks to the Awakened understanding that unlocks the greatest potential of the art. Again, an Esoterica practice must fit the character’s belief system if you want to use it as a focus; a computer mage will have a hard time wedging her study of herbalism into a technomagickal hacking routine! This rule, however, helps flesh out your character’s belief system and gives you a practical use for the arcane disciplines that any mage worth that name understands. For details about various paradigms, practices, and instruments associated with esoteric practices, see Focus and the Arts in Chapter Ten, (pp. 565-600).

FORECASTING

Description: Assessment Analysis.

Allowed Specialties: A

HERBALISM

Description: 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. This skill will also provide knowledge of the magical lore of plants.

Allowed Specialties: Culinary, Hallucinogens, Medicinal, Narcotics, Poisonous, Spirit.

MEDIA

Description: Mass media is mass reality… and you know how to shape both. The fine art and science of crafting public perception is yours to employ. You know who to call, what to tell them, which strings to pull, and probably how to make a tasty profit off the end result. Although this Trait does not necessarily grant access to high-placed media figures (see the Influence Background for those kinds of connections), you understand the Mass Media Machine and can guide it to your best advantage. The Dominion, Art of Desire, and Reality-Hacking practices often depend upon an understanding of media (see those entries in Chapter Ten), and media can even function as an instrument of certain types of magick – see the Mass Media entry on (p.594) for details.

Allowed Specialties: A

MILITARY SCIENCE

Description: Through intensive study or actual battle experience, you’re familiar with the techniques needed to conduct a military campaign. Your knowledge spans the spectrum of war, from the tactics required to command a 10-man squad to the grand strategy needed to command whole armies. You know how best to deploy your forces, cut off supply lines, and capture vital territory.

Allowed Specialties: Large-Scale, Modern, One-On-One, Phalanx, Sabbat, Sieges.

POISONS

Description: You have a working knowledge of poisons, their effects, and antidotes. You can analyze a poison to tell its origin and can prepare a poison or antidote given time and equipment. You must have at least one dot in Science to acquire this Knowledge.

Drugs are your specialty: street drugs, herbal compounds, experimental medications, psychoactives, hypertech concoctions, and the like. You understand the effects of various chemicals on the human animal and perhaps on other animals as well. A specialty of shamans, witches, Progenitors, Ecstatics, alchemists, and other mages who employ pharmaceutical compounds, this Knowledge allows you – with the proper tools, of course – to measure, recognize, analyze, counter, or dose someone with a range of chemicals. As usual, higher ratings reflect greater expertise. You’ll never know everything, of course, but you’re rarely flying blind. A venerable, if underhanded, magickal tool, the variation Knowledge of Poisons allows you to alter the natural chemistry of living things in… shall we say, unfortunate ways. Witches, alchemists, assassins, and other shady types are infamous for their expertise with such compounds, and though you might not want to advertise that information, you’re experienced with such compounds too.

Allowed Specialties: Analysis, Antidotes, Chemical Poisons, Instant Poisons, Magical Poisons, Plant-Based Poisons, Slow-Build Poisons, Undetectable, Venoms.

POWER-BROKERING

Description: When it’s time to set up puppets and get them dancing, this Ability reflects your ability to consolidate connections, facilitate access, introduce power-players to one another, and then lay foundations for the type of influence that gets things done. An “offstage” ability (like Research and Networking), Power-Brokering allows you to set up and manipulate networks of authority and then sit in the center of them and employ the folks who owe you favors. Faces and titles may differ, but social power is universal. Especially when combined with Mind spells, Power-Brokering lets you “make a few calls” to bring influential parties together and point them at common goals. Social-based rolls create those connections – typically composed of Manipulation + Power-Brokering, although Charisma, Appearance, Intelligence, Perception, and perhaps even – within some cultures – Strength could be combined with Power-Brokering as well. In conjunction with Backgrounds like Allies, Influence, Resources, and Spies, or Abilities like Etiquette, Cultural Savvy, Media, Politics, Subterfuge, and similar Traits, you can forge potent connections without ever resorting to Spheres; if you do nudge things a bit with True Magick, the results can be astounding… just ask the Technocracy… and the Nephandi… For suggestions about the metaphysical applications of such influence, see the Mage 20 Instruments entries for Mass Media and Management and Human Resources (pp. 594-595), and Influence From a Distance and The Social Element in How Do You DO That?, pp. 116-120.

Allowed Specialties: A

RD DATA

Description: You know more about the Night-Folk than they’d appreciate you knowing. Sure, your understanding gets filtered through the lens of your own group’s perspective, but it’s more than the average person… or mage… comprehends. For mystic mages, such knowledge is considered Lore: the hidden secrets of vampires, RD Data: information about the clandestine affairs of Reality Deviants whose very existence presents a threat to the Consensus. Different Lore categories include: Spirits, Fae, Werecreatures, Vampires, Ghosts, Hunters, Demons, Mages (naturally…), and potentially others as well. Each Lore/ RD Data category counts as a separate Lore specialty; knowing about Sabbat Kindred won’t teach you anything about Seelie Fae Kith. The Well-Skilled Craftsman option may help you assemble a formidable amount of information about various groups within those categories. Even then, however, your knowledge will be full of holes, misconceptions, prejudices, and lies. These secretive beings don’t even have accurate appraisals of themselves, so an outsider (especially a Technocratic one) has obvious disadvantages in that regard as well. Another thing – despite their long rivalries, different mage factions don’t often have accurate data about one another. A Verbena runecaster might recognize “one of those fucking soulless Technocratic bastards,” but he’s not likely to know the difference between a Progenitor Genegineer and a Syndicate “magic man”… or to care much about it, either, unless he’s got a specialty in Technocracy Lore.

Allowed Specialties: A

SUBDIMENSIONS

Description: Known by Technocrats and many hypertech mystics as Subdimensions, this trait reflects a working knowledge of the puzzling Otherworlds beyond the Earthly plane. With it, you stand a decent chance of finding your way around out there without getting yourself killed. (Without it, you’re seriously screwed.) The specific way in which you view the Otherworlds will depend a lot on what you expect to see there; this Knowledge simply gives you the tools to navigate paths, spot hazards, deal with entities, and recognize opportunities or threats when you run across them.

Allowed Specialties: A

VICE

Description: You’re a master and a scholar of decadent pleasures. Sex, drugs, booze, and other thrills both common and forbidden are your specialty. You might be a vice cop or Interpol agent tasked with cleaning such places up; a criminal rooted in those undergrounds; a wizard with a shady past; or a sensation-seeker of the first and final order. Perhaps you’re a sex-worker, a drugmule, or some other street-level professional… or a tourist in places the guidebooks never mention. Regardless of the source of your information, you know how to find dens of iniquity, chase your favorite dragons.

Allowed Specialties: A