E M E R A L D C I T Y C H R O N I C L E S
GAMEPLAY: PERMUTATIONS: HOUSE RULES: MERIT & FLAW ERRATA
As a general rule, we don't mind what flaws people take, though if we notice a bunch of plague carriers we will start to caution against that particular merit. We understand, also, that some merits are prone to being abusable, such as Enchanting Voice with the Dominate one-two punch. Therefore supernatural effects can't have their difficulty lowered via mundane means. Put simply: Merits do not effect Disciplines.
CONCEPT RARITY OF MERITS & FLAWS
The breakdown is by rarity in the fictional 'average' Camarilla city of Dark Seattle, so in the example of Calm Heart, 2 Common, 5 Uncommon, 9 Rare. What that means is that 2 Kindred in a standard Cam city who are always cool and collected is pretty normal (Common). 5 unflappable vampires is a bit unlikely (Uncommon) and 9 Kindred who don't even bother to look at explosions as they walk away is decidedly strange for a single town (Rare). 10 is right out.
MERITS & FLAWS FROM V20 CORE BOOK
(common/uncommon/rare)
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Additional Clan Discipline - 2/4/6 *
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Calm Heart - 2/5/7
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Early Riser - Worth 1 extra Downtime action $
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Enchanting Voice - 2/5/7
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Hidden Diablerie - 1/2/3
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Infamous Sire - Special #
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Infertile Vitae - Only worth 1 point in Flaws +
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Iron Will - 1/3/5
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Magic-Resistant - 1/3/5
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Medium - 2/4/6
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New Arrival - Special %
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Nine Lives - 0/1/2
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Oracular - 1/2/3 - Costs permenant willpower to use @
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Prestigious Sire - Special #
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True Faith - 0/0/1
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Unbondable - 1/2/3
MERITS & FLAWS FROM LORE OF THE CLANS BOOK
(common/uncommon/rare)
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Broken Antritrbu - (Assamite) 0/0/0 Flaw inappropriate for setting since every Assamite is still under the Tremere curse
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Setite Initiate (For NON-Setites Only) - 0/1/2 - NEVER grants access to Setite Sorcery.
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Totemic Change (Gangrel) 0/1/2
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Mortuario - (Giovanni) - Increase base Giovanni rarity by a degree. Only one in play.
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Court Favorite - (Lasombra) 0/0/0 - Not appropriate for Camarilla vampires.
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King or Queen of Shadow (Lasombra) - 0/0/0 - Not appropriate for Camarilla vampires.
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Instrument of God (Lasombra) - Increases rarity by one step.
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Light WIthin Shadow (Lasombra) - Won't affect Mysticism rolls
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Comforting Darkness (Lasombra) - Won't affect Mysticism rolls
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Claiming the Dark (Lasombra) - Won't affect Mysticism rolls
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Commune with the Abyss (Lasombra) - Unavailable for play
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Vision of Shadow (Lasombra) - Unavailable for play
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Cold Read (Malkavian) - 0/1/2
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Sleep Unseen (Nosferatu) - 1/2/3
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False Reflection - (Nosferatu) 0/1/2
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Spawning Pool (Nosferatu) - Must be purchased after Character Creation, per book.
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Heart of Needles (Ravnos) - Increase rarity a step.
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Slowed Degeneration (Toreador) - 1/2/3
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Keys to the Library (Tremere) - Not appropriate for a PC run chantry.
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Unmarked Antitribu (Tremere) - 0/0/1
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Quartermaster (Tremere) - Not appropriate for a PC run chantry.
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Promethean Clay (Tzimisce) - Unavailable for play
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Blessed by St. Gustav (Ventrue) - 0/0/1
We also discuss other Clan-specific traits in the Clan Errata section of the site.
* Additional Clan Discipline will only allow you to pick one of the base 8 (Auspex, Animalism, Celerity, Potence, Fortitude, Presence, Dominate, Obfuscate) disciplines to gain as an extra In Clan.
+ Infertile Vitae - Rebalanced for Cam-LARP play. This was originally a Sabbat flaw and comes up much more frequently in that Sect. As Camarilla vampires need to undergo a lengthy approval process in order to secure the rights to Embrace a Childe, and then rear that Fledgeling within society, the frequency that this comes up is dramatically reduced. It is impossible to police the meta-game aspect of this flaw (your character not knowing they have it, for instance, and gaining Right of Progeny only to lose their favored retainer to exsanguination), and is often seen as 'free points' in a LARP of this type. Therefore, this flaw will only award a single point to those that purchase it to account for its reduced visibility.
$ Early Riser would, per standard math treat PCs as Humanity 10, which would grant 5 downtimes per month to players, regardless of their Humanity rating for a single point. Since this is just a 1-point Merit, we've re-balanced this to simply add a single extra downtime to whatever a character's normal downtimes would be based on their Humanity or Path rating. Some players may end up with the same net amount of downtimes regardles, however others may go up or down. This is preferable to establishing a Rarity on the often used merit that would require esisting PCs to send rarity they didn't have or remove the merit from their sheet post character creation.
% New Arrival may only be taken by a NEW PLAYER who has not previous played in ECC. May not have any character ties with any other character in the city.
SOCIAL & POSITIONAL MERITS & FLAWS
Since EC tends to promote court positions being filled by PCs, most of the merits that would give you a benefit for a court position are inappropriate for play in a player character driven LARP setting. The following Merits/Flaws are not used: Lawman's Friend, Primogen/Bishop friendship, Bully boy.
# Prestigious Sire and Infamous Sire are used to break ties in social/status challenges.
BUYING OFF FLAWS
Merits and Flaws represent inherent weakness or aptitudes of a persons greater character. Merits and Flaws will not be purchasable (or bought off) after initial character creation without expectional story and effort. Players shouldn't expect either at any point. Some things are possible, but this is the purview of staff to rule on a case by case basis. As a very general and non-binding rule, flaws of a social nature may be bought off with appropriate story if the verbage of the flaw represents a way to end it (Probationary Sect Member is possible, Former Prince is not, etc).
LANGUAGES ARE MERITS
Per the V20 core book, pg. 484, Languages are purchased per Language at the cost of a 1 point merit per language. After character creation, Merits cost the same as Abilities with XP, (costs are shown on 125 of the V20 Core book). Though it is generally rare to buy Merits after character creation, learning new languages simply require a teacher, and the appropriate amount of XP.
LORES ARE MERITS
Lores are simply a specialized knowledge about a subset of something supernatural. They represent a wide variety of encyclopedic knowledge encompassing the history, powers, and relevant interests of various supernatural groups, creature types and hidden histories. Therefore we've chosen to treat them as Merits, similar to the Languages system in the V20 core book.
Lore merits cost 1, 2, or 3 Freebie points (or Ability cost in XP after a character enters play) based on how rare they are from your character build. Lore rarity follows the same Common, Uncommon and Rare motif that most of our game does.
For example, if you are playing a Camarilla Vampire in the Brujah Clan, Kindred Lore, Camarilla Lore and Brujah Lore would be Common to your character. Anarch Lore, Sabbat Lore and Toreador Lore would be considered Uncommon to your character and Get of Fenris Lore, Black Hand Lore and Daughter of Cacophany Lore would be considered Rare to your character.
Put another way, the cost and difficulty to obtain a lore varies depending on how abstract the lore is from what you are playing. They will fall into three categories; common (1 freebie or 3xp), uncommon (2 freebies or 6xp), or rare (3 freebies or 9xp).
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Common Lores are precisely what your character is. Their clan, their sect, their supernatural template. These are common to you.
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Uncommon Lores are things that are similar to your build, and fairly commonplace to the world your character lives in. Other major Sects of vampires, such as the Anarchs or Sabbat, other clans in your character's sect, or aged, forgoten or antagonistic bloodlines in your Clan, other major Clans, and some other major supernatural templates might be uncommon, depending on your specific build. Ghosts might be uncommon to Giovanni, Werewolves could be uncommon to Gangrel and mages might be considered uncommon to Tremere.
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Rare Lores are things that are vastly different from your build, or represent a very minor presence in the world you live in. Specific bloodline lore, unique supernatural groups or even political groups inside groups of other supernaturals, minor supernatural templates, or very obscure political groups within your supernatural type, such as Inconnu or Tal Mahe' Ra are all rare lores. Additionally, certain lores are expressly hidden by other powerful supernaturals. Noddist Lore, the history of vampire origins, for example is described in the source material for being purposefully obscured and hidden by powerful methuselah-aged vampires. Therefore, although it directly pertains to vampires, it's still considered a rare lore. Certain other creatures may have their own version of the 'masquerade' as well, meaning that the difficulty of certain checks pertaining them could be higher than average, or require a peculiar focus, or multiple checks to obtain detailed information about them.
Check out our Permutations Podcast below regarding Lores at our game.
WHAT LORES DO
Lores provide your character the ability to make a check to learn a piece of supernatural knowledge in-character. Without an appropriate lore, characters may simply have no chance of learning the answer to a question about a given supernatual type of event in-game, short of personal experience with the subject of a given lore.
Without an appropriate Lore, characters will tend to justify these events within their own in-character framework rather than assume an event is uniquely tied to some other supernatural type. The check could be Wits+Academics for an on-the-spot remembrance of a Kindred's lineage, or it could be Perception+Awareness to recognize a Changeling's powers at work, but whatever the check is, without the lore, players may only gain general occult insight into a supernatural event they are investigating.
The difficulties of Lore checks are based on how esoteric the question is that is being asked of the ST to be recalled or researched by the player. Having a lore doesn't grant free knowledge, nor does it guarantee a set difficulty on those checks.
USING LORES
There are two ways of engaging your lores; an on-the-spot recall, or an in depth study. Recalling something on the spot usually requires an Wits + relevant attribute check to see what your character recalls in the moment. Knowing someone's history within an organization (like a Sect of Vampires such as the Camarilla, for example) would require having access to that lore and then rolling your character's Wits + Academics. Knowing their Status or affiliations would likely require a Wits + Politics check. Knowing what supernatural woojee they have displayed could require a Perception or Wits + Occult or Awareness check. The difficulty will vary depending on how abstract the knowledge you are seeking is. For example, knowing the last year of someone's history with an organization like the Camarilla when you're both playing Camarilla Kindred would be a relatively low difficulty, where as knowing their Sire's history would be substantively harder.
In-depth study takes a downtime action and allows you to extend the above checks. Each month spent researching a thing will afford you 4 checks, that you can tally the results of. This still might not be enough to know truly abstract facts about a creature, but it will provide a good guideline.
It is possible to learn lores by engaging a Mentor, being taught by another character, or via extended research into the subject. Lores learned in any of these methods require a reasonable story as to how that is performed, or why that person can teach your character.
Gaining Lores after character creation is a somewhat difficult process. We are stylizing this system (like all other research projects) off of the system for acquiring rituals from the Rites of Blood book. This is a two-stage process. First, you must make a series of downtime actions of Intelligence + Investigations in order for your character to acquire enough evidence that this other Lore exists. After you have acquired enough successes, you make a series of Intelligence + Occult rolls (occasionally Lores will require Academics, Politics or even Law checks instead of Occult to Master depending on the nature of the lore) during downtime actions to master this knowledge.
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The difficulty of these checks is 4 for Common Lores, 6 for Uncommon Lores, and 8 for Rare Lores.
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The number of successes required is 5 for Common Lores, 15 for Uncommon Lores and 25 for Rare Lores.
Once these steps are completed, you may spend experience to acquire this Lore on your sheet and even help others to learn.
LORE RARITY EXAMPLES
Greta Gangrel is a dedicated scholar of things that seem likely to attack Seattle on any given night. She knows a fair bit about Werewolves, and the Sabbat, and has paid dearly for that knowledge on multiple levels. She also made it a point to discover all she could about her own bloodline, and traded that knowledge to a Ravnos coterie-mate in order to preserve the knowledge of her dying bloodline. She's worked side-by side with the Brujah often while defending the Domain from the claws and fangs of brutal outsiders, and that earned her enough trust to gain a lesson in the ways of the Warrior Poets as well.
Lores:
Common - (Clan, sect, type)
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Camarilla
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Kindred
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Gangrel
Uncommon - (Werewolf is uncommon to Gangrel)
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Sabbat
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Brujah
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Ravnos
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Werewolf
Rare - (none - though Werewolf lore is rare to most other clans)
Rare
Uncommon
Common
Greta Gangrel
Rare
Uncommon
Marty Malkavian knows his way around the Kindred condition more than most, but cares little for the trappings of Camarilla politics. His experiments are much more important than any 'silly Traditions'. He's dedicated his unlife to the study of the intricacies of the unique Madness that Malkavian's share, and has learned of the ways of his brethren accross Sect lines - a dangerous prospect if he's ever discovered - by either Sect. Probably equally risky is his knowledge of Noddist Lore, one of the most blasphemous knowledges a Kindred like Marty can attain.
Lores:
Common - (Clan, sect, type)
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Kindred
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Malkavian
Uncommon - (Malk anti is uncommon to Malks)
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Malkavian anti-tribu
Rare - (Nod lore is hidden on purpose from vampires by powerful other vampires)
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Nod Lore
Marty Malkavian
Common
Rare
Uncommon
Teresa Toreador would be shocked, *shocked* to find out that there are members of the vaunted Camarilla who would purposfully taint themselves with knowledges of the obscure and forbidden. Naturally she's made an extensive study of her beloved Camarilla and it's Traditions and goals, and has picked up a number of happenings related to it's founding that are, perhaps better left unmentioned, and as a Toreador guild leader and up and coming social media powerhouse, her Lore of her own Clan has served her just as well in the Newsroom as it has in the Salons of her Toreador brothers and sisters in the Camarilla.
Lores:
Common - (Clan, sect, type)
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Camarilla
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Toreador
Uncommon - (none)
Rare - (none)
Teresa Toreador
Common
THE ORACULAR ABILITY MERIT
Oracular Ability @
'Oracular Ability' is a potent and potentially game altering tool. Different games run this differently, and the range of its utility spans from 'I get a vision every hour to update me on what plots are where, and what PCs are up to what' to 'This was a waste of points'.
It is not our intention to hamper the utility of this merit, but we need to preserve the integrity of the game and the mysterious nature of the Classic World of Darkness. Oracular Ability has been compared to merits of equal value and this is staff's determination on how it is to be run. Mechanically, this will function precisely by the book, its the frequency that we seem to have a trouble figuring out.
Staff will engage Oracular Ability no more than three times per month. Staff will discuss at their meetings if they feel there are any appropriate plots or rumblings in the world which will warrant a vision. Staff will attempt to give out a vision monthly should there be appropriate material to do so. However, players are not entitled to these checks. Just like Iron Will might not come up every month, sometimes the world is 'quiet' or your character could be just blind to that particular portent.
Players, however, may invoke a vision for their character. Doing so costs a downtime action and a permanent willpower. The character in question needs to go someplace quiet to focus, and utilizes their paradigm. Perhaps its meditating in the woods, or reading the tarot, or having casual sex. Whatever it is that your character does to find their visions, they go and do that thing for a long time. At the end of that time, they ask Staff one question.
Due to the time involved in providing an accurate answer, Staff might not have a vision for the character that night, but if you aren't awarded one instantly, you will have one at the very start of next game or in an email to you mid-week.
We understand the cost for forcing a vision is high, so we will work very hard to answer your question directly and as non-confrontational as possible, however, some questions are well beyond the scope of this ability and we will tell you that at the time you ask the question, but before you have spent the Willpower. You will still be out a downtime action while your character is reading their tarot cards in the woods with their hooker Herd doing orgy stuff in the background.