Thread for Character Creation Index | New Thread | Reply | Close | Stick | Delete  Character Creation B 4:43am, February 06, 2018 [Edit] [Delete] (VtM) STEP ONE: CHARACTER CONCEPT The first step is to create your character's concept. Concept is the basic information of your character. Name, Player, Nature, Demeanor, Clan, Generation, Sire and Concept. The following will explain a little bit about those. Name refers to the name of your character. Player is YOUR name. Clan refers to the clan you choose your character to be from. (Currently, all clans are open.) Sire is the vampire that Embraced (made immortal) your character. Nature is the "true" personality of your character - who he/she REALLY is deep down inside and tries not to make readily apparent to everyone else to see. Demeanor is the personality your character presents to the world. More often than not, Nature and Demeanor are different, especially given the deviousness of the vampire mind. Whether it’s a cold, heartless moneygrubber, or a caring supportive person. Just because your character appears to be these things, that doesn’t mean it really is. Think of a demeanor as a cover of a book. What’s on the cover doesn’t necessarily reflect who you really are. Concept is a brief description(one or two word "sketch") of who your character was before the Embrace. Are you a rock star? A penniless hooker? Maybe your character is a rich manipulative manager of some star singer, or a chain of restaurants. To see a list of sample concepts click here. Generation is how many steps removed from Caine your character is. If your Sire is an 8th generation Vampire.. then you will be a 9th . Everyone begins character creation as 13th generation and spends Background dots in Generation to lower your character's Generation. This will be covered later in the Backgrounds section. Once you have completed this section to your satisfaction, it is time to move on to the more technical details of Character Creation. If you look at the very bottom of the Character Sheet you will see the following numbers: Attributes: 7/5/3 Abilities: 13/9/5 Disciplines: 3 Backgrounds: 5 Virtues: 7 Freebie Points: 15 (7/5/2/1) These numbers represent your limits of dots in each Trait STEP TWO: SELECT ATTRIBUTES Players must now assign numbers to determine the Attributes of their character. Attributes are the natural abilities and raw "stuff" a character is made of. How strong is a character? How attractive? How quick? How smart? The first step is to prioritize by selecting which group of Attributes to be your character's strong suit (primary), your average suit (secondary), and finally, your character's weak suit (tertiary). Is your character tough but antisocial, or gorgeous but a complete airhead? All Vampire characters start with one dot in each Attribute, reflecting the basic capabilities of the mortals from which they're drawn. (The exception is the Nosferatu, who have zero dots in their Appearance Attribute.) A player may distribute 7 additional dots to his character's primary group, 5 additional dots to the secondary group and 3 additional dots to the tertiary group. For example, a tough, athletic character will likely allocate 7 dots to his Physical category, while a clever, wise character will place 7 dots in her Mental category. STEP THREE: SELECT ABILITIES Abilities are also divided into three catagories: Talents, Skills and Knowledges. Talents are intuitive Abilities that are inherent or learned "in the field." Skills are Abilitities learned through rigorous training or determination. They may be learned with careful practice, but can also be studied or learned through training. Knowledges are just that - "book learning" and the like. Knowledges are typically mental pursuits or studies learned through schooling or books. Like Attributes, Ability groups are also prioritized during character creation. Players should select primary, secondary and tertiary groups for their Abilities. The primary group receives 13 dots, the secondary group gets 9 and the tertiary group receives 5. Note that, unlike Attributes, characters do not begin the game with automatic dots in any Ability. And no Ability may be purchased above 3 dots during this stage of character creation - even among the undead, experts in a field don't grow on trees. You may raise Abilities higher with freebie points, but that comes later. You do not have to place dots in every single ability on the sheet, feel free to pick and choose only the ones you feel are needed for your character Talents, Skills, and Knowledges (definitions list) STEP FOUR: ADVANTAGES This is your Disciplines, Backgrounds, and Virtues area. These we will go over one at a time to avoid confusion. Disciplines are the easiest to do. When vampires are Embraced, their sires teach them certain blood-based mystical powers, known as Disciplines. Each character begins with three dots in Disciplines, 1 dot in each Discipline. Backgrounds are a bit more complex, as there are several listings and things to choose from. You are allotted 5 dots to place in this area. You may choose anything from the Backgrounds list, but they should fit the character concept - a destitute Gangrel street preacher isn't likely to have Resources. But remember at this time you may only place 5 dots under this heading. Virtues are your levels of conscience, self-control, and courage. Conscience is your characters ability to distinguish between right and wrong. This is a trait that shows the moral backbone for your character. Self-control determines how readily you resist the temptations of the Beast and fight off Hunger. Courage measures the character's ability to withstand the proximity of dangers such as fire, sunlight and other things that vampires dread. Every character starts out with 1 dot in each Virtue, and you may then distribute 7 additional dots among the Virtues as you see fit. These Virtues play instrumental roles in determining a character's starting Humanity and Willpower levels, so be careful how you spend the points. Alternate Virtues: Conviction and Instinct Vampire: The Masquerade is fundamentally about coming to grips with one's monstrous nature and, hopefully, overcoming it. As such, we strongly encourage beginning players to select the Virtues of Conscience and Self-Control for their characters. However, certain Kindred, particularly the vampires of the Sabbat, adhere to different ethical outlooks. For these vampires, the Virtues of Conviction and Instinct may replace the Virtues of Conscience and Self-Control, respectively. (All vampires have the Courage Virtue.) If you decide that your character is sufficiently inhuman to warrant these Virtues, you may circle the appropriate Virtues on the character sheet. Be warned that in taking these Virtues, you have effectively designated your character as a monster. STEP FIVE: FINISHING TOUCHES At this stage you will record your character's Merits & Flaws, Humanity, Willpower, and Blood Pool. Merits and Flaws are optional Traits that can provide player characters with added depth and personality when used properly. Merits are special abilities or advantages(many times hidden) that are rare or unique in the general Kindred popluation. Merits cost you freebie points which are listed beside each merit. For example: A 2-point merit will cost you 2 freebie points. Flaws are liabilities or disadvantages that pose challenges to a character's nightly existence. Like a defect, or a not so nice trait. Flaws are a big part in setting your character apart and making them a bit more realistic, adding that little bit of spice so to speak. Unlike Merits, Flaws do not cost you anything, instead they give you back points as you take them. No character may have more than 7 points worth of Flaws (which would give a character a total of 22 freebie points to spend in other areas). Example of this, a 3-point flaw will ADD 3 points back into your freebie point pool. Choose wisely , because once you submit your sheet, you can not change or add flaws and merits. Humanity is the amount of human nature you contain after your embrace, obviously a newly embraced character might have a lot of humanity, not yet having fully experienced the endless nights, and the beast within. A character's starting Humanity score equals the sum of her Conscience + Self-Control Traits, yielding a score between 5 and 10. Players are also encouraged to increase their Humanity scores with freebie points, as too low a score indicates that the Beast lies in close proximity. Humanity Chart X Monstrous * Horrific ** Bestial *** Cold **** Unfeeling ***** Distant ****** Removed ******* Normal ******** Caring ********* Compassionate ********** Saintly To see further details of each Humanity level, click here. Willpower equals your character's Courage rating, and thus ranges from 1 to 5. Players are encouraged to raise their starting Willpower scores with freebie points, as the Trait is critical to dealing with a Kindred's dangerous emotional situations. Willpower is also used to resist frenzy, undertake especially daunting tasks and power certain Disciplines effects. Blood Pool The crowning touch to character creation is determing the vampire's starting blood pool. Generation / Max trait Rating / Blood pool / Max.Blood Points/Turn Third 10 ??? ??? Fourth 9 50 10 Fifth 8 40 8 Sixth 7 30 6 Seventh 6 20 4 Eighth 5 15 3 Nineth 5 14 2 Tenth 5 13 1 Eleventh 5 12 1 Twelfth 5 10 1 Thirteenth+ 5 10 1 Max Trait Rating: This indicates the highest permanent Trait rating (excluding Humanity/Path scores and Willpower ratings) a vampire of the given generation can have. This is especially important with regard to Disciplines and Attributes. Blood Pool Max: The maximum number of blood points a vampire may keep in her system. Remember that elder vampires concentrate their blood - while the volume of blood in their bodies is no greater than any other vampire's, each pint of blood is worth more than one point. Blood Points/Turn: This indicates how many blood points a vampire can spend in a single turn. Health The Health Trait measures a character's physical condition, from perfect health to death. As characters are wounded or otherwise impaired, they lose health levels, then regain them as they heal. At this point, disregard the Health section, you will be taught how to manage your Health Trait later. Freebie Points are used to “buy” additional dots in Traits. You are allotted 15 freebie points to start with and you may gain up to 7 additional freebie points by taking flaws. For example; a 2-point flaw will ADD 2 points to your freebies. Keep in mind though that you may NOT go over 7 points worth of flaws. The following is a cost chart, showing you how many freebie points it costs to purchase 1 dot in different Traits. Freebie Chart Trait Cost Attribute 5 per dot Ability 2 per dot Discipline 7 per dot Background 1 per dot Virtue 2 per dot Humanity 1 per dot Willpower 1 per dot Edited 4:45am, February 06, 2018 by B, author.  Mage Creation Praxis 4:48am, February 06, 2018 [Edit] [Delete] Character Creation: Point Allocation Disciple (Rank 1) Attributes: 7 – 5 – 3 Abilities: 13 – 9 – 5 Backgrounds: 7 Spheres: 6 Willpower (Base): 5 Arete (Base): 2 Experienced Disciple (Rank 2) Attributes: 8 – 6 – 3 Abilities: 17 – 11 – 8 Backgrounds: 8 Spheres: 10 Willpower (Base): 6 Arete (Base): 3 Adept (Rank 3) Attributes: 9 – 6 – 4 Abilities: 20 – 13 – 10 Backgrounds: 9 Spheres: 15 Willpower (Base): 7 Arete (Base): 4 NOTE: At least one sphere must be at 4 dots. Master (Rank 4) Attributes: 9 – 6 – 4 Abilities: 22 – 15 – 10 Backgrounds: 10 Spheres: 20 Willpower (Base): 8 Arete (Base): 5 NOTE: At least one sphere must be at 5 dots. Master's have 1 additional point to allocate in attributes. All characters are allowed to spend 15 freebie points. 10 additional freebie points are available if a respectable history is submitted. These points will be given after submission and approval of base sheet. Once provided, denote their use just as you have with your other points. Willpower and Arete should be recorded as listed, and can be raised with freebies as usual. Index | New Thread | Reply | Close | Stick | Delete