Rules - Systems

As I play with the Storyteller System, I strive to make it fit my vision of the world. I imagine a lot of people probably alter and "tweak" the system and the setting to fit their own visions. The game is yours, and the system is flexible. There are no White Wolf Nazis out looking for people bending the rules. I think the Revised Vampire Storytellers Handbook illustrates this theme best in its introduction:

Although the Golden Rule of the Storyteller System suggests that you feel free to use, abuse, change and modify any individual rule that doesn't work for you, we do insist on one heretofore unstated rule that takes precedence over all others

Have fun.

This is a game. Some Storytellers take everything that we've written and cast it into the fire. Others stay as close to the published letter of the rules and setting as they possibly can. Most people fall somewhere in between, using what they like from the books and devising their own house rules to better suit their troupe's tastes. And they're all perfectly right.

Vampire can't possible be all things to all people. As writers, designers and developers, we know this, because, hey, it's our job, but sometimes it's best to step back and say that outright. When the game ceases to be fun for you, close the book and come back later. When balancing the numbers becomes more of a chore than a thrill and when guessing as to the outcomes of certain plot threads becomes a matter of near-religious dogma,

walk away from the table for as long as it takes to come back to that bottom line. Your books and your dice will still be there.

All too often in the hobby of games, people lose sight of that fact -- they forget that games are pastimes meant to be enjoyed rather than argued over. In fact, to hear some people talk at the game shops or on the Internet, the argument is the be-all and end-all of the game. For them, perhaps it is. But for the less bellicose among us, we would do well to remember that we get from the game what we put into it. As Shakespeare said, "the play's the thing," and nowhere is this more true than in games, in which the "play" (if we may interpret the Bard's words a bit) is the whole purpose of coming together for an evening's storytelling.

Yes, you should take the Golden Rule to heart. Change! Adapt! Create! Raze and rebuild! Plot and deceive! But in the end, make sure that it's enjoyable to do so. You're not being graded and we promise not to send any legions of stick-wielding StoryFascists™ to bludgeon your game into compliance with ours.

It's your game. Have Fun

Inspiring words I might say. I try to keep those ideas in mind at all times when running, playing or writing for my Vampire games. I think the most important thing is to understand that the books are a series of suggestive rules. They have been playtested to work, but they can be manipulated in so many ways. Besides, I wasn't there to playtest them, and my visions of play will more than likely vary from those that were there. I have no qualms about changing things up. And as a storyteller you should feel so too, but a quick word of warning, change it up all you want, but be absolutely sure that your players are on the same page. You need to have your players in agreement with you; the game should be fun for all involved.

So in that respect, I continue this page with alterations, adjustment and revisions I have used in my games. Some I still use, others I have discontinued but will still mention them, because someone may still think them helpful or beneficial. I will be breaking the information up into three sections: Rules, Systems, and Visions. The Rules section will be for new rules I created, these will mostly have to do with character creation and development. I may also discuss standing White Wolf rules that I feel have been understated or are frequently overlooked. In the systems section I'll discuss alterations I've made to the system in general, whether setting or rules. Usually my changes and revisions will be to balance something in the game or to create a different effect than the game originally intended. And finally in the visions section is going to be the catch all for this page. In the Visions section I'm going to put everything from variations on the World of Darkness to thoughts and opinion that just don't seem to fit anywhere else. As a result, this should be the most diverse and yet most informative section.

As a storyteller, and as a player in fact, I prefer low- to mid-power games. I like the struggle of the underdog, the confusion of a newborn and the ominous view of those that can crush you towering above. I guess I'm kind of weird like that. As a storyteller I use a series of "house rules" to try and limit the game, to keep the characters in check without really hindering their abilities in development. Some of them apply only at character creation, others are actually in effect at all times.

Character Creation Restrictions:
In order to try and keep the characters in a somewhat early stage at character creation, no players are allowed to raise any stat above 3 before the freebie point stage. I realize that this is in line with the standard White Wolf rules, but the next part is my alteration. During freebie points and merits & flaws, the only stats that may be raised above 3 are Attributes and Backgrounds. All other stats are limited to a max of 3 dots through the entire character creation period. Additionally, I only allow seven points of merits and seven points of flaws (with the exception of high point merits or flaws that exceed seven by themselves).

Stories vary in power, and thus the players within the plot - the PC's - must also vary in strength. In the case of a low-power game (of which I am very fond, both as a player and a Storyteller), you may sometimes need to restrict some aspects of character creation. Vampires, even starting ones, can be pretty powerful. In the time that I've been running, I've heard a lot of disgruntled mumbles specifically dedicated to backgrounds. You can often maximize a background or two (especially Generation and Resources) and make up for any limitations that result from being a fairly young PC.

Additional Low-Power Character Creatation Limitations
In order to creage a low power game, I have come up with some additional limitations for character creation. All of these, of course, are debateable to a point. Remember, a good story can be a great defense.

All characters must be less than 1 year dead. They may still be seen as the childer of their sire, or they may be recently emancipated, but they must still be relatively new to unlife.

No character may have more than two dots in Generation or four dots in Resources (unless the character background is very detailed and very convincing as to how the character came in to that much money).

Players may opt to take no points in Generation and instead choose a currently active NPC to be their sire. In that case they gain the appropriate Generation based on the NPC.

Even if a character is not the direct decendant of an active NPC, each must in some way be associated with one. They must be in a position to recieve requests, orders, or assistance from one or more NPC. This is to basically guarantee a point of contact for a character that is too young to have any real influence of his own.

Thin-Blooded is an acceptable option. They are weaker, yes, but have strange and unpredictable abilities (for those of you who are unfamiliar with them).

Of course some of the restrictions above are campaign specific, but even if you aren't running a game in the city of San Cortia (i.e.: you aren't me) you can modify the rules to fit you campaign. Everything on this site is stuff I came up with for my game, and even I don't use it all, some of it is just brainstorming.

Also, I know the books state this more times than is probably necessary, but I'd like to restate that the Storyteller always has final judgment on all character creations. If you want to restrict clans, don't let a player talk you into letting them play something because they think it would be cool. The game is moderated by the storyteller, you are creating the setting, the world, the life of the story. The players are filling in the protagonists. They need to fit the story comfortably.

Of course as a control freak, I had to find some way to limit their advancement progress. Again, recalling the standard rules, you cannot advance more than a single dot in a specific stat per session. It is also suggested that you apply experience to areas that you have used and/or practiced in recent sessions and can feel justified in advancing. If you aren't sure, check with the storyteller, they can help you along. But as with character creation, I came up with some house specifics.

Discipline Advancement Restrictions:
First off, standard discipline experience costs apply (current rating x5, x7 for out of clan, x6 for Caitiff). The game gets tricky when trying to either learn new disciplines or develop known disciplines beyond basic abilities (levels 1 - 3). If a character wishes to learn a new out of clan discipline, they must have another Kindred teach them. A vampire can learn a clan discipline on her own, but to learn something beyond the instinct of her clan's blood, she must have a teacher.

So it all breaks down like this: Celerity, Fortitude, and Potence are defined as physical disciplines and can be learned by any Kindred with practice and no formal instruction. They can be developed to any level desired by simply practicing and "exercising" However, alternate powers would require instruction.

For example, Tom Toreador has Celerity 3 and Auspex 3. He has never bothered to put any thought into Presence. After gaining some experience, he decides he wants to raise his Celerity to level 4. Being that it is a physical discipline, it is immune to all restrictive effects and he can raise it with no problems, just a little IC practice. He also wants to pick up a little Fortitude, so he pushes his body, burning it, resisting the sun light, etc. Eventually he simply develops Fortitude with no formal education, just some strength of will and drive to improve.

When a vampire wants to pick up a new in-clan discipline, there is a "blood instinct" to learn it. But when a vampire wants to try to pick up a discipline from outside her clan, then she must find a teacher to begin her development on that new discipline. That teacher must have at least level 2 in the discipline; that implies a relatively competent understanding, enough to teach another.

Tom then decides to try and pick up Presence and Dominate. Presence, being a clan discipline, is easy. Like Celerity above, he practices and concentrates and finds that he "knows" how to do it already; he just never applied his blood in that way. Dominate on the other hand, is out of clan, so he is going to have to find someone to teach him. After finding Vinnie the Ventrue, Tom convinces Vinnie to teach him Dominate. A few weeks of lessons and practice and Tom is starting to get the hang of it, but of course, now he owes Vinnie a favor.

If a vampire wishes to advance her disciplines beyond the basic comprehension (level 3, in my view), then she must again have a teacher, this goes for in clan and out of clan disciplines. It is at levels 4 and 5 that disciplines move from being simple tricks to powerful forces. These forces need guidance to direct. The only exceptions to this rule are the purely physical disciplines (Celerity, Fortitude, and Potence). All others require special training to advance past level 3. Additionally, a teacher must always have one level higher than he is trying to teach, again, to imply competence in the ability taught.

Later, Tom decides he wants to raise his Auspex to 4. It's a little different now, he's learned all he can on his own. Now he needs to find some instruction. He gets another vampire with Auspex 5 to teach him the art of Telepathy (Auspex 4). Again, with some instruction and practice, Tom is reading the thoughts of the Kine like an old pro.

As you can see, trying to learn level 5 of a Discipline can get pretty tricky, and can even turn out to be the topic of a series of sessions. A note on alternate abilities: these are developments of standard disciplines in non-conventional directions. Presence is not known to work through electronic media, but perhaps an inventive Toreador wants to be a TV personality, so she works to develop a televised Presence ability. Alternate abilities are the realm of the vampire taking what she has learned, and striding off to the left with it. As a whole I leave these in the domain of the storyteller. I allow them in the game, but the player has to do some fancy footwork to get their character to learn them. There has to be a clear-cut, story-based reason for it. Also the learning or discovery process must be either played out or detailed in an interesting way. All vampires have the power to develop themselves in new and interesting ways; it's up to the players to show me how.

Upon recollection, I suppose most of my changes are to the setting or the system. I don't have that many hard and fast rules. I see myself as pretty relaxed when it comes to being an enforcer. I think that's best anyway; the rules need be flexible in the interest of the story. We play the game and when something starts to get in the way, sometimes I have to rule it out or reshape it to not be so awkward. Such was the case with Blood Bonds. The fact that an entire chapter in my chronicle was named The Blood that Binds would imply that we had a bit of a problem. I took it upon myself to make a ruling such that Blood Bonds would still be effective, yet not nearly as debilitating.

The Blood that Binds:
I have found that Blood Bonds can get out of hand. The books imply that a bond can be garnered not after a full point drunk, but at "Each sip of a particular Kindred's blood" (VRev, pg. 218). Taking that into consideration, what keeps any Thaumaturge from becoming bound to the Kindred he just used A Taste for Blood upon? When one vampire is dying, and her friend comes to her rescue with a drink of blood, is she not bound to her friend? And the process of removing a bond is simply too difficult to allow so many petty bonds to float around.

I finally had to put my foot down. I came up with what has turned out to be a simple, yet effective solution. In order to bind a subject, a Kindred must leak his blood with intent to bind. In this way, one may feed another without issuing a bond. A Thaumaturge may taste blood without threatening the hierarchical structure of his own clan.

When a Vampire decides to create a Blood Bond between herself and another, she must bleed vitae with specific intent to bind someone. No specific quantity is required, as is hinted above. Thus if her blood is not bled with this intent, it has no binding properties. This begs the questions:

1. How much does the Vampire have to want to bind the subject?

The Vampire can, in essence, bleed for the subject and only subconsciously want to bind him. It is at the Storyteller's discretion, when blood is passed, as to whether the intent was strong enough. Though I would have to say, if the Vampire is honestly trying to bind the subject, than it should work. It should only be a topic of debate if the Vampire doesn't realize what she may be doing.

2. What if a Vampire is unconscious (or in torpor) and others drink from her?

If the potential regnant is not even aware blood is passing, there can be no subconscious thought of binding, therefore there is no threat of a Blood Bond.

3. Is bonding a malicious act?

I see bonding as a malicious act regardless of ruling, system or intent. The Blood Bond is the act of bending another's psyche to worship your own. It is altering another being's discretions and perceptions to focus on you. A Blood Bond is very much a malicious act.

As I have played through the Storyteller System, I have found only a few things that bug me. The main and primary concern I have with the system is combat. Not anything specific about it other than the length. I try my best to not run a combat-heavy game, but even most political games can be spiced up with a fight every now and then. I try to average one a session. The downfall of this folly though, is that one combat session, even one involving minimal players and enemies, can last upwards of two hours. That, to me, is a really long time. I have toyed around with the system making guns do more damage, making less things soakable, making 4 health-level NPC's, etc. and nothing seems to have worked. As I try to tweak the system in my own home-rules, I will try to keep the ideas here for others that may have similar frustrations.

Gun Damage:
When I threw a handful of NPC's with guns coming out their asses at a pair of Vampires, a problem appeared. The Vampires, regardless of skill or ability, could continue to massacre the NPC's without fear of weaponry. This I attempted to change. I wanted guns to be more dangerous. I realize that a dead corpse of a Vampire will be able to sustain a certain amount of abuse, but after a point, blood loss would start to reap it's revenge.

I altered guns in the following fashion: The damage rating on a gun was no longer the dice rolled, but the amount of damage a bullet does for entering flesh. Then all extra successes on the hit roll were rolled and added to the damage. The resulting damage was then soakable only by Fortitude or bullet-related armor. Bullets still did bashing only on the Vampires, so they had a pretty high resistance, but there was a higher level of fear. All of this led to my altering the weapons chart slightly, damage on guns was lowered (can't hardly have damage of 5 as an average, with little to no way to soak it), and difficulty was raised to represent the reduction in damage. We determined a few games later that this did not help and reverted to the standard weapon system.

Modified Weapons Chart in Adobe Acrobat PDF.

At the release of Vampire Revised Edition (or 3rd edition if you so prefer)n I adopted all of the new systems (standard difficulty is not quite as standard in my game as I think they intended, but I always liked the variable diff.). The one I have altered a bit is the initiative roll; I have based it more on the modified Storyteller System as found in the Æon/Trinity system. Upon character creation, players write their Dex+Wits score in a box in the margin of their character sheet. This is their initiative rating and it cannot change regardless of experience spent on Dexterity or Wits. The only way to increase your initiative rating is to spend experience to raise it (current rating). Roll a d10 and add your initiative rating and that's when you go in the turn, subtracting any health penalties from the final roll that may apply.

At character creation, Ben Brujah has a Dex+Wits value of 5 (Dex=3, Wits=2). His player writes this in the margin of the character sheet. When combat starts, his player rolls a d10 and adds 5 to find his initiative for the round (if he has any wound penalties, these are subtracted from the total). Later, if Ben increases his Dex or Wits with experience, his initiative is still 5. To increase his initiative, Ben has to spend 5 experience points (current initiative rating) on initiative, bringing him to 6.

What I found to be missing was the old botched initiative from Second Edition. I was involved in a very Low-Gen fight where, in the middle of combat, both me and my opponent botched our initiative. It was a humorous break in the middle of a very climactic fight. So in an effort to recreate the possibility of botching initiative, I came up with the following.

Botching Initiative in 3rd Ed:
When a player rolls a '1' for initiative, they then roll a second time. If the second roll comes up as anything other than a '1', they simply add 1 to their initiative rating and go during that phase.

However, if the player rolls a second '1' then they have botched their initiative. This results in that player doing nothing for that round. They can perform simple reflexives, soak damage, etc. They may not, however, dodge, use disciplines, speak (IC), or move.

Players are people, no matter how hard they try to get into character. Often times there are things they don't wish to say to the group aloud. This was a matter that inspired me to provide a small notebook for all of my players. These are nothing more than small spiral-bound notebooks, maybe 4"x5". But it is in these notebooks that some of my greatest joys as a Storyteller comes. In fact, the joy that I seemed to show when reading them after a session influenced all my other friends running games to do the same. Now all three games that we run or play have notebooks or paper provided for the explicit purpose of writing down internal character thoughts, schemes, wild theories, etc.

The Player Notebook:
The notebooks started out, as I said, as a place to write down the things the players didn't feel like saying aloud: character's thoughts and such. Then the players took to the notebooks as almost a mental haven. They wrote down theories that were so ridiculous that they didn't feel justified in speaking; some wrote them almost as diaries for the characters, including what they did and why. Some simply wrote down plans of nefarious evil.

It has come to the point that the notebooks now not only tell me what the characters are thinking, but also to help me write the Chronicle out, since they serve as a reminder to games long past. If I can't remember how a session went, I can look back in the books to see how the characters reacted. I would suggest that if you don't currently have anything like this in your game - player or storyteller - buy some books and hand them out. They can really help you to discover each character in and out, and it serves as an almost invaluable resource to the storyteller. Some of my best plots started out as half-baked theories.

After reading the Rules section, it's obvious that I tend to find lots of ways to limit the progress of my characters. So I felt that I needed a way to focus their learning to compensate. I looked to the Æon/Trinity system for inspiration. A character in Trinity can buy multiple specialties in both abilities and attributes (to a maximum of three), whereas in the World of Darkness, you earn a specialty when you reach 4 dots in something. I decided then that rather than letting the characters get more powerful, I would try to let them get more specialized.

Multiple Specializations:
In order to develop laterally and to enhance their abilities without becoming all-powerful, characters can specialize in specific skills and abilities.

As per the standard rules, when a character reaches 4 dots in an ability or attribute, he may choose a specialization for that attribute or ability. For example, with 4 dots in firearms, the character may specialize in handguns. From that point on, the player may re-roll 10's to acquire additional successes on any roll involving that quality or specialization. But with all the time in the world, couldn't a vampire learn not only to specialize in handguns, but also rifles?

Thus, I bastardized the multiple specialization rules from Æon/Trinity. Upon reaching the 4th dot in an attribute or ability, a character earns a free specialization, as expected. If the player wishes the character to broaden their talents, they may later spend experience to buy a second specialization. If again the player wishes that the character become even more knowledgeable, more experience may be spent to buy a third specialization, but only after buying a fifth dot in that ability. No more specializations may be purchased beyond 3. This may be done in both attributes and abilities to a maximum of 3 specializations per attribute or ability.
System:

Free specialization at Level 4 of an Attribute or Ability (standard rules, VRev pg. 117)

Can also buy one extra specialization at Level 4 of an Attribute or Ability

Can buy one final specialization at Level 5 of an Attribute or Ability

Attribute Specializations cost 3 experience

Ability Specializations cost 2 experience

I like skills, no kidding, I really like skills. There aren't nearly enough skills, talents, or knowledges on the character sheet so as a result, I'm a big fan of secondary skills (as offered in the Players Guide for 2nd Edition or the Storytellers Companion in Revised Edition). Unfortunately, both sources only give rules for buying secondary skills at character creation so I had to come up with my own system for buying them with experience, because I think (for example) anyone can learn Area Knowledge after they've been in a city for a while. I offer this option mostly because people are not aware of Secondary Skills at the time that they are creating their characters.

Secondary Abilities:
First off, before we get too far into this, be aware that unlike the default abilities on the character sheet, all Seconday Abilities must be approved by the Storyteller before purchasing.

Secondary Abilities are used exactly as standard abilities are, only because of their specialization and limited purpose, cost less than standard abilities. The cost to buy a Secondary Ability is Two (2) experience points. To raise a Secondary Ability costs current rating in experience.

Again, be sure that the Secondary Ability is available to you before you purchase it.

As you may notice from the restrictions I tie to my game, and the limitations I create, I'm not a fan of fast development. At least not as far as stats are concerned. I prefer to see players develop the character and the psyche more than the numbers and the dots on the paper. I think that's why I'm so fond of the player notebooks, they are a deep view into the actual mind and heart of the character in a realm devoid of numbers and stats. As a result I am working on a new Experience Chart from the one provided in the book. I feel like the one in the book does not adequately represent the development of characters in my game so I am creating a slightly more compatible one.

Experience Granted:
Learns something about him/herself or a plot they are involved in

Shows initiative to act on a plot or sub-plot

Includes at least one other character in a conflict (thus improving coterie relations)

Acts heroically in the name of a plot, PC or NPC

Player plays character true to form (or beyond)

Player disrupts game with a comment of infinite hilarity (rare)
So the ultimate maximum a character can earn in a night is six, but the average is going to be around two or three. If this list interests you, you may want to keep tabs on it, as it may change often as I alter and perfect it.

Visions are the ways that I see my world differently from our own or the published World of Darkness. I can't jump with glee more than when the writers state that the setting is open to interpretation. This is what makes them so great, as writers. I have altered the world to fit my visions, and in the event that someone may appreciate my changes, I will post them here as I see fit.

The day is twelve hours long as is the night, and it seems to span from approximately 7am to 7pm. The buildings tower, with a Gotham influence on the architecture. Some cities, or areas within cities, however, seem to have been influenced by the Technocracy, in that the buildings are more steel and glass, and less concrete.

Yes, the Technocracy exists in my world; they run around with their "Chaoscopic Scanners" and "Zip Guns" and occasionally wreak havoc for my poor Kindred players. There are also large tribes of Lupines in the woods; the Gangrel fear them as they should. Ghosts haunt the attentive Malkavian with ideas and images that he wouldn't normally have. And yes, the Kuei-Jin have landed on the western shores of the Americas and are chasing the Anarchs east. It's a full world. I admittedly know less about Changeling than any of the games, and thus have not officially accepted or denied them from my reality. Only time will tell if they truly exist, but in the end, it's a Vampire game through and through, and the players have more interaction with those of their own kind than any other being in the World of Darkness.

Vampires are creatures of passion, or so the legends say. So why can't they make love? Recently White Wolf released the semi-cannon Eternal Hearts which delved into this world of necromantic love. But I've used it in my games since the beginning. I've had Kindred characters fall in and out of love with each other, and then back in. Why is it, with all the legends and elicit tales of literature, the game dictates that vampires get no pleasure from intimacy?

I don't know how Obfuscate was intended to work by the originally writers and developer but I've had problems with it before. Not so much in my game, but when I take part in other games and I have a different opinion on it than other ST's and players. As a result, I thought I'd dump my thoughts on Obfuscate here.

Obfuscate is a narrow variant of Dominate. It is a power the vampires have to affect the minds of others, and in fact, acts as a mass hypnosis of sorts. By activating Obfuscate, a vampire reaches out and mentally convinces other vampires that he simply does not exist. To resolve a popular conflict: Obfuscate covers all senses unless something exceeds the discretion of the vampires Obfuscate ability (i.e.: the vampire makes a loud noise, smells really bad, bumps into someone, etc.).

What this all means is that when a vampire Obfuscates, they essentially do not exist (as long as their will is stronger than any witnesses). Additionally, the power has the mystic ability to penetrate technology, to a point. If someone is viewing a monitor of a live camera and an Obfuscated kindred passes by, the kindred remains Obfuscated as per normal rules. However if the camera is taped and watched at a time when the kindred is no longer there to inflict his will, the Obfuscate is nullified and the vampire is visible for all (on tape). Basically it comes down to whether the interaction is live or recorded: you can't record the power of Obfuscate.

So if Obfuscate is a mental power, why does Auspex negate it? Obfuscate gives the user the power to mask themselves from the witnesses around them. But once the witnesses have senses above and beyond those of the Obfuscated, it becomes increasingly difficult to know what might be giving them away. You can't hide what you don't know is showing. Auspex basically increases the telltale signatures of an Obfuscated vampire.

Character backgrounds please me so much you could almost call them a fetish of mine. I can derive so much pleasure from a well written background, and in fact can use them to help me develop my plots. A story is much more entertaining, I think, when it is somehow directly related to the characters. As a result, when you make a character for one of my games, I cannot stress how helpful and important a detailed character description and background can be. So little on the character sheet can help me unerstand the character you have built. I want to know where the character has come from, where he wishes to go, what his loves and fears are, etc. The more information I have on the characters, the more the story can be about them.

Some of the best things to include would be goals. Everyone has something they want to acheive at some point in their existance. I can help make that happen, but only if I know about it. In fact there would be little point to playing a character with no driving goals in mind. Why play a character that has already achieved everything he would ever want, I would rather play a character that has so much in mind (and in their heart) to accomplish. It meanst that no matter where the plot goes, you still have something to fall back on as a driving force. If character goals are included in the background, I can attempt to drop seeds of accomplishment along the way.

If you are having trouble coming up with ideas or fleshing out your background and you really want it to kick ass, you might want to take a look at a questionaire I picked up off a news group. The Prelude Questionaire is intended to take the place of an actual prelude session, which have become pretty rare amongst most of the players and storytellers I deal with.