VBN House Rules.

 

 

White Wolf Rules Used

VbN uses the White Wolf 3rd edition (beginning with Laws of the Night- Revised) LARP Core books. Any changes should make the game easier and/or increase fun for the players of VbN. Current books that VbN considers Core Books are: Laws of the Night- Revised, Laws of the Night- Camarilla Guide, Dark Epics, Laws of the Night- Sabbat Guide, Laws of the Night- Storytellers Guide, and Laws of the Night- Anarch Guide. Additional material from other Mind's Eye Theatre rule books may also be used at ST staff discretion. The ST team reserves the right to pull any or all parts of the above supplements that are judged to be inappropriate to the Chronicle. Any clarifications or addenda involving these rules, or any additional house rules for the game, are outlined below. If it is not in the core books or these house rules, it is not a rule.

 

Overall Rules

1) NO weapons of any sort, real or realistic toys, will be brought into the game (see props for more)

2) NO physical contact during challenges.

3) Anyone who is chemically altered, is harassing players, or is otherwise disrupting the game will be told to leave.

4) Please make sure that a Storyteller or Narrator knows about any important situation. If a Storyteller or Narrator doesn't know about it, it didnt happen.

5) Have Fun.

Other Notes:

1. This is Vampire: the Masquerade not Twilight. The World of Darkness is not pretty, not fair, and definitely not nice. Vampires lie, they cheat, and they stab each other in the back. Get over it, get used to it, or feel free to find a Twilight LARP.
2. Please play your character and not yourself. In other words, think and act like your character would in a very ugly, unfair, cut-throat world.
3. You are a player and therefore, do not know all that is going on. If the staff says you cant do something, there is a reason for it! And no, we dont have to tell you what it is. That would kind of ruin the whole story.
4. Neither VbN nor the Camarilla are Democracies. The ST Staff tries to run a fair game but fair is not the same as Democratic. Please dont treat either as if they are.
5. Characters die or are killed by other PCs, stupidity, or bad luck. It sucks but it happens. Please take into account every game, that there is the possibility your character wont survive the night and please dont cry to ST Staff if it happens. You will get any unspent XP to roll over into a new character.

 

The Rest of the World of Darkness

Yes, it exists; it does not have to be ever present in the Chronicle. We will consider it a danger sign when HIT Marks, Abominations, Risen, and Demons enter the chronicle on a regular basis.

 

Chronicle Interaction

Any form of interaction which affects another chronicle, including characters traveling back and forth by any means, sending/receiving items, introducing plots, etc., must be reported to the ST team, who will in turn contact the HST of the other chronicle to ensure there are no problems with the interaction. Visiting affiliated chronicles is not considered downtime. Players are expected to accept the results of visiting other chronicles.

Character Creation

 

*No character is considered approved until the entire ST Staff has reviewed the Character.Character's that are either presented at game or made during game will be allowed to be played for that game only, after approved by at least 2 members of staff.

*Camarilla Loyal Brujah, Malkavian, Nosferatu, Toreador, Tremere, Ventrue and the Ghouls of Player Characters are all majority Staff approval.

*All other characters require unanimous Staff approval to be played.

 

Beginning Character Points

Attributes: 7 primary, 5 secondary, 3 tertiary

Abilities: 5

Negative Traits: Up to 5

Flaws: 7 (Additional flaws may be taken for no points for the sake of character development)

Merits: Limited by available points, as appropriate. The ST team has final say in what may be considered unbalancing Merits.)

Disciplines: 9 points in Disciplines. For example, the 1st basic in each of the characters 3 in-clan disciplines, or the 1st basic in one in-clan and 2 basics in another, or up to 1st intermediate in one with 3 build points spent.

Backgrounds: 5

Influences: Characters may not buy influences at character creation. They may only have the influences that are a part of your clan advantage per LotN:R.

Generation: Generation costs more than 1 background point per level. The current cost is as follows;

12thgen: 2 pts;

11thgen: 4 pts;

10thgen: 8 pts;

9thgen:16 pts;

8thgen: 32 pts.

 

Morality/Path:All characters begin game on Path of Humanity. Starting Morality traits is average of conscience and self-control rounded up.

Virtues: (conscience/conviction, self-control/instinct, and courage): Each virtue starts at 1, and then you have 7 additional points to distribute between the 3 Virtues. The max for any Virtue is 5.

 

Build Points

• All Characters gain 5 build points per Laws of the Night.- Revised.
• Additional points may be awarded through a written character background and character quiz at Storyteller discretion.
• A character may choose to take a derangement for additional two "freebie" points. (A character may take additional derangements, but only the initial derangement grants the points)
• Also, at character creation, the player may choose to lose one Morality trait in exchange for two "freebie" points.
• Max build points through Negative Traits, Flaws, regular build points, Derangements, and selling a Morality trait is 21.
• The player may also carry over unspent xp from a dead or retired character.

Player Character Ghouls

 

The rules for Ghouls are a modification of Libres des Ghouls.

 

* Ghouls Max Traits are 10. Starting traits are 7-5-3

* Beginning Willpower is 2 with a max of 4

* Blood- Ghouls start the night with 3 Kindred blood and 7 human.

* Ghouls get 5 abilities, 3 backgrounds, and 0 build points.

* Up to 5 points in Flaws and Merits, 4 negative traits, and one Derangement.

 

Disciplines

* In-clan Disciplines for Ghouls are Fortitude, Celerity and Potence.

* To learn any other Disciplines the Ghoul must have the merit Learn Other Disciplines.

* All Disciplines cost 4xp for basics and 7xp for intermediates.

* What level of Disciplines a Ghoul can have depends on their Regnant. If the Regnant is 13-10th gen they can learn Basic Disciplines. 9th generation Regnant up to 1st intermediate. 8th gen Regnant up to 2nd intermediate. 7th Gen up to Advanced. Animal Ghouls can never have advanced Disciplines.

*Ghouls can't teach Disciplines.

 

Non Player Character Ghouls

 

New Background Trait of Ghoul

We have created a new background trait specifically for ghouls. This allows characters to have and maintain ghouls. For each trait in the Ghoul Background you can either have a more powerful ghoul or have that number of ghouls or some combination of the two. Characters are down 1 blood point per ghoul per game.

 

1. Basic Ghoul per Ghoul creation above.

2. Basic Ghoul plus 15 Build Points.

3. Basic Ghoul plus 30 Build Points.

4. Basic Ghoul plus 45 Build Points.

5. Basic Ghoul plus 60 Build Points.

 

If your NPC ghoul is anything other than an ordinary human or animal ghoul (i.e.- kinfolk, garou, mage,etc.) then you must also possess the Supernatural Ally merit.

No NPC Ghoul may do anything that brings them into any scene without a full character sheet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Multiple Character and Inactive Character Policy

 

Valley by Night permits a player to have 2 player characters. However, only one of these characters may be active (posting on list servers, appearing at games, etc.) and earning experience points at any given time. You must play the same character for a minimum of 6 games and you cannot play one character but spend the experience points on the other. All experience points go to the character that you are currently playing. You cannot switch characters from game to game and back again. During the stated time of inactivity, a character may not post to any servers, make game appearances, or have "off-site" conversations of any sort. This also applies to any NPCs the character controls such as ghouls as well as any Resources, Influences, Allies, Contacts, or other assets listed on the character sheet. In some cases, the inactive character may be allowed limited contact, but always ask the Storytellers for permission to do this. It's a good idea to get such permission in writing to avoid future confusion. Breaking this rule may result in ST action regarding the character.

 

A character's inactivity may be a matter of:

* Player choice ("Things are too hot in town for my Brujah right now; I want to send him out of the city to go fight Sabbat in Mexico so that I can play a Malkavian instead.")

* Storyteller decision ("You wandered into the wrong place at the wrong time, and you've been kidnapped by the Unseelie Court . . .")

* Due to the actions of another player ("Okay, I've got you staked and torpored--I'm going to put you in a fifty- gallon oil drum and keep you buried in the desert until your friends meet my ransom demands.").

If it is due to Players Choice, then your character must make an appearance at least once every 3 months or your character will be put into Downtimed status and will be out of play for at least 6 months from the last time it was played.

 

Downtiming a Character:

You may choose to downtime a character for a minimum of 6 months for many reasons like raising your humanity, working on raising or changing a morality path rating, making major changes to a character that cannot happen in game, working on a skill that travel is required for (either to find a teacher or on a task for your teacher/ mentor). During this time, the character is under the inactive rules and cannot be contacted for any reason by PCs or hand off their assets to others to use.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Influences

 

It is important to maintain the flavor of Influences when using them in a game. Much of the burden of this task falls upon the shoulders of the players using influences. When a player wishes to perform an influence action, she should give the influence ST a write-up of the activity, complete with a description of exactly how her Influences are going about executing the desired task. The influence rules for VbN are based off of the influences rules found in Laws of the Night- Revised.

The most common way to use influences is to send your influence actions to the Influence ST during downtime. The second way is during game and you need something to happen right away. This is limited to a level 1 influence action.

 

Influence totals

The maximum total levels of Influence that a character may have can be no more than his or her Physical, Social and Mental Traits. Ghouls as well as corporations may be used to add to a characters Influence total. The current maximum level that any PC can have in a given category is 5.

The cost noted in the Influence charts (see Laws of the Night- Revised) is both the number of actions it takes to partake in that endeavor and the minimum level of influence required to be able to utilize that endeavor.

 

Gaining Influences

The only way to gain influences is to turn in a downtime with which influence the character is buying or increasing, a general location/ department that the influence is in, a short explanation of how the character is increasing their influences and spend 1 xp (this also means you just cant spend XP and suddenly have influence traits). For example, if a character wanted to increase her Legal influence would turn in a downtime stating that the character is hanging out around courthouses in downtown Phoenix and using mind affecting supernatural powers such as Dominate and Presence to befriend Lawyers and Judges.

 

Influence Uses

For possible uses of Influences, refer to the influence charts in Laws of the Night Revised. Most uses will be available only as downtime actions. Certain levels of Influence gift you with items, money or aides. Unlike the Resources Background, money and equipment garnered with Influence does not come automatically each month. If you want a steady income from Influence, you must direct your Influence in that direction continually, and this income does not come with any associated trappings of wealth. (You'd have to buy a house and car separately, for instance.) Aides garnered with Influence generally help for only one specific task, and they usually have the equivalent of only one level of Ability in their area of skill. For more competent and readily available help, take the Allies Background.

 

Influence and Time

Influence endeavors take time. The amount of time will vary; using Bureaucracy influence to get the floor plans for a building may take a day or two, while using Street influence to get a pistol might take as long as a week. It is possible to speed things up, but speeding up an endeavor may double or even triple its difficulty. Not just the action cost, but also the level of the endeavor. For example: A person with Street Influence 3 can spend a couple of nights of downtime and three actions to perform the endeavor get a pistol. A person with Street Influence 6 can make a phone call and spend six actions to perform the endeavor get a pistol within an hour. Really complicated endeavors like destroying a persons records on a local level may be impossible to speed up, even by someone with Bureaucracy Influence 5.

Contacts, (directly from Laws of the Night: Revised)

The Contacts background allows you to discern rumors and information. When you call on your contacts, you make a few phone calls, check with likely snitches and grease a few palms. In return, you get rumors and information as if possessed of a certain amount of Influence. Doing so lets you find out exactly whats going on in the city within a particular area. You can get information of a level equal to however many contacts you use. If you use Contacts x3 on Industry, for instance, you get information as if digging up dirt with Industry x3 Influence. The advantage of the Contacts Background is that contacts can be switched from place to place each game, getting information in different areas at your demand.

Using Contacts for especially dangerous or secret information may require you to spend some money or perform a few favors, at the discretion of the ST staff. On occasion, accidents can cause contacts in one area to dry up, such as a strike that affects your Industry contacts, or a particularly unlucky astronomical conjunction sends your Occult contacts running for the hills. Your contacts will not generally function as aides or lackeys; that is the purview of the Allies and Retainers Backgrounds.

 

 

 

Allies, (directly from Laws of the Night: Revised)

Allies are a few friends, either kept from your mortal days or made after the Embrace, that help you out on your endeavors. You can make a few calls and cut a few deals to get assistance in a wide range of activities. The ST staff will require you to define how you keep your allies and their relations to you.

Each Allies Trait possessed represents one person that you can call on for aid. Unlike Influence, your Allies have special talents that make them better than the average person on the street. Though your allies may not be aware of your vampire nature, they can be quite useful if directed properly.

In general, your allies do not show up in play directly. Instead, you can use them for certain services during Downtimes.

• An ally can be directed to follow up on research or activities that you have started. If you undertook a specific task previously, like trailing someone, researching a project or building a device, your allies can continue the work, doing so with one Ability Traits worth of expertise. As long as they work on the project, your Allies Trait for the individual is tied up.
• If you need a particularly competent ally, you can expend multiple Traits to gain access to a moral with multiple levels of an Ability or Influence. Each Allies Trait that you spend after the first gives an extra level of expertise to your allies. They may use this expertise on your behalf, though rarely with your own skill, and they only help as long as you tie up your Allies Background Traits in this manner.
• An ally can help you hunt, though obviously, its not a good idea to rely on you allies as blood sources, or even tell them exactly what theyre doing when they bring people to you. Each Trait of Allies that you use for hunting lets you make a Simple Test. A win or tie grants you one additional Blood Trait. Doing so counts as a project that lasts for the entire Downtime.

Be wary of calling on you allies too often. An ally may call on you for mutual aid or refuse to help if pressed into dangerous or illegal activities.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mentors (directly from Laws of the Night: Revised)

An older or more experienced Cainite looks after you and comes to your aid occasionally. Whatever the case, you can get assistance from you mentor, though his favor may be fickle.

When you call on your mentor, you risk a certain number of Traits to achieve a given effect. A lowly one-Trait mentor probably knows only little more than you while a five-Trait mentor may well have luminous standing within your sect and a wide range of potent powers. Regardless, taking up your mentors valuable time is costly. You must engage in a Simple Test when you call on your mentor. If you succeed, your mentor deigns to aid you. If you tie, your mentor grants you assistance, but then requires something in return. If you fail, your mentor demands the favor first before helping. In any case, your mentor can be called on only once in any given game session, and only if you have an appropriate way to contact them.

The level of aid that your mentor can give depends on the number of Traits in this Background with ST approval.

• For one Trait, your mentor is privy to a single piece of specialized information at a level above your own. If you have Camarilla Lore x2, for instance, your mentor can be called on to give you with one piece of information from Camarilla Lore x3
• For two Traits, you can borrow one level of Contacts, Influence, Resources, or Status from your mentor for the duration of the game. If your mentor is very powerful (four or five traits), you can borrow two levels.
• Two Traits allows your mentor to instruct you in a Basic Discipline that you do not know.
• For three Traits, your mentor can instruct you in an Intermediate Discipline that you do not know.
• Also at a cost of three Traits, your mentor can train you in the ways of a special Hobby/Professional/Expert Ability that is outside your normal ken, such as Wraith Lore.
• For four Traits, your mentor can train you in an Advanced Discipline beyond your grasp.
• For five-Traits, your mentor can train you in phenomenal powers of the elders, if your blood is potent enough to learn such secrets.

Since Mentors can prove unbalancing by providing too many different powers over the course of a long game, the ST staff may lower your total Mentor Traits as you call on his knowledge. This decrease represents the fact that as your character learns the mentors secrets, the mentor has less left to teach.

 

VbN Modification: All Mentors will have a Character sheet or they will not teach anything. The Player has the responsibility of getting with one of the members of Staff to create their Mentors Character Sheet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Merits and Flaws

We encourage players to take as many Merits and Flaws as they feel appropriate for the character and that the ST team and the player feel can be played. However, there are some Merits and Flaws that are inherently rare and/or powerful and require the approval of the ST team. These include but are not limited to Luck, Magic Resistance, Lucky, Nine Lives, True Faith, Iron Will, and Blas. Any combination of Iron Will, Blas, and Unbondable will probably not be allowed. It is recommended that the Common Sense merit be taken by all new characters.

 

Natural Linguist

Is used when trying to place a language that is being spoken or you are reading. For example, you are at a gathering and two Kindred talking in a language that the linguist doesnt have. You can make a static challenge vs. 7 traits to see if you can identify the language. With Natural Linguist, you are up three traits in that challenge.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Abilities and Lores :

Just because your character knows one of the big secrets of a clan doesnt mean you have any levels of Lore. Just having 2 levels of a lore or ability means that you know have basically earned a Bachelors degree in that area (see Dark Epics).

 

Linguistics: (Per Laws of the East pg. 84).

All characters begin with their native tongue for free. Each level of the Linguistics ability allows for the selection of languages spoken, with a maximum cap equal to the character's Mental traits.

 

Level 1: One language

Level 2: Two languages

Level 3: Four languages

Level 4: Eight languages

Level 5: Sixteen (16) languages

 

Insight:

For Kindred of 14th or 15th generation only.

 

Awareness:

To gain an Awareness test, you must expend a level of Awareness and retests are with Occult.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Disciplines

 

Elder Level Disciplines

Elder level disciplines can be used by PCs of eighth generation. For a PC to have an Elder level Discipline it needs to be in-clan. It can take up to 1 full year to learn. Abilities and lower level disciplines may be learned during this year, however changing paths during this time will cause the year learning time to restart.

 

Obfuscate-

Cloak of Shadows only blurs your outline, it doesnt grant you invisibility. Auspex is still needed to see you. For every level of Auspex or Obfuscate the person gains 1 bonus trait for the challenge.

 

Celerity-

All celerity actions take place after normal actions, except for Alacrity. Alacrity actions take place before everyman and are limited to such activities as standing up, taking 1 step, drawing a weapon, etc

 

Running Speeds: When not in combat, spend 1 blood for 5 minutes of Celerity.

* Alacrity- 15 miles per hours 22 feet per second

* Swiftness- 30 mph 44 fps

* Rapidity- 50 mph 73 fps

* Legarity- 70 mph 102.5 fps

* Fleetness- 90 mph 132 fps

* Elder- 110 mph 160 fps

* Ascendant- 130 mph 190 fps

* Methuselah- 150 mph 220 fps

 

Potence-

The strength related physical traits are: Brawny, Ferocious, Stalwart, Tough, Vicious and Wiry.

Jumping/Leaping: Each Strength trait allows for two feet vertically or four feet horizontally. Each Level of Potence adds an additional three feet vertically or nine feet horizontally.

 

Traits Feats Lift(pounds)

1.Crush a Beer Can 40

2. Break a Wooden Chair 100

3. Break down a wooden door 250

4.Break a 2x4 board 400

5. Break open a metal Fire Door 650

6. Throw a motorcycle 800

7. Flip over a small car 900

8. Break a 3" lead pipe 1000

9. Punch through a cement wall 1200

10. Rip open a steel drum 1500

11. Punch through 1" sheet metal 2000

12. Break a metal lamppost 3000

13. Throw a station wagon4000

14. Throw a Van 5000

15. Throw a Truck 6000

+1000 per additional Trait

Challenges

Anything that allows a retest may be counter bid by its duplicate if the opposing party possesses the ability to call for an identical retest and chooses to spend it in counter bidding. This system has been put in place to speed up and simplify challengeswe don't want to spend all night playing Rock-Paper-Scissors, do we? Thus, Might may cancel Might, etc. However, Might may not cancel brawl.

Resolving Challenges

K.I.S.S. -- Keep It Short and Simple. All challenges must end simply and quickly. No 3-hour-long combat rounds. All scenes will be ran as fairly as possible, but it may involve changing, altering, ignoring, or outright contradicting the rules for the sake of scene or story flow. All scenes are final, only in very rare cases will any part of a scene be red-lined and this is at the discretion of the ST team. Scene results that result in Player Character death will be overturned only if all STs agree to do so. No one will simply "come back from the dead" however.

10-Minute Courtesy Rule :

If you attempt a Mental or Social Challenge against another character and are not successful, you may not initiate the same type of challenge until at least 10 real-time minutes have passed. This is to prevent the so-called "shot gunning" of Animalism, Dominate, Presence, et cetera. This rule applies to combat situation as well as Non-combat situations.

 

Combat Sequence

A member of the ST team must be present for all combat. The proper sequence to be followed in combat which makes for combat that is as realistic and fair as possible is shown below. This sequence should be followed for all combat.

 

Actions begin and go in the following order:

 

1. Alacrity (limited to things like standing up or readying a weapon)

2. Everyman (Social, Mental, and Physical challenges)

3. Swiftness (Only Physical Challenges)

4. Legerity (Only Physical Challenges)

5. Any additional follow-ups (such as an off- hand action)

In each of the action levels (Alacrity, everyman, swiftness, legerity, and follow-ups) the order of these actions results is determined by the number of traits that the character is bidding for the action. For example, 3 Brujah are having a rant. Joe is hitting Charley who is hitting Bob with a baseball bat while Bob using Dread Gaze on Charley. Joe has 10 physical traits. Charley has 15 traits (13 plus 2 for the bat) and Bob has 9 social traits. All three players throw their chops at the same time however, the order of results would go in the order of Charley, Joe and Bob actions. So if Bob dread gazed Charley, Charleys action against Bob still happened.

 

* On the count of three everyone points to whom they are attacking and then states their victory condition. This may not be changed. If by the time it is your turn to act and your action is no longer relevant, you may decide not to do it. This doesnt mean you can change your action, you lose your action.

* Follow-up actions from Celerity are handled in exactly the same way as normal combat with those acting in Celerity acting as if they were in normal combat.

 

 

 

 

Stacking

Forms : The different forms (Shape of the Beast, Tenebrous Form, Black Met, Blood Form, Horrid Form, Ashes to Ashes, Mist Form, Typhonic Beast, Skin of the Adder, etc) granted by disciplines or magic may not be stacked.

Damage:Damage may only be stacked if it is logical to the ST involved in the scene. The Rending is a special attack in itself and as such cant be stacked with other types of damage such as fire, wards, Balls Caress. A sword with wraith paste, a ward, Balls Caress, Serephs Claw, and on Fire will not do 6 agg.

 

Willpower:

Before a challenge is first thrown, you may spend 1 willpower trait to gain the appropriate ability.This may not be done after a character has lost a challenge just to gain a retest.

 

Torpor (Waking Someone Up)

If you are trying to wake a Character from Torpor, you will need to feed them 1 point of blood and possibly make a chop. You may only try once a night.

• If you are at least 3 generations lower than the person you are trying to wake up, then you automatically wake them up with just the blood.
• If you are the same generation or 1-2 lower than the person, you will need to make a chop after feeding them blood and either tie or win to wake them up.
• If you are a higher generation than the person, you will need to make a chop after feeding them blood and win outright.

No matter how much blood you feed them, or how many people feed them blood, Only one chop is allowed per night and that is for the first point of blood from the first person to feed them.

 

Character Death

All character death must be adjudicated by a ST or narrator; the same goes for diablerie. Also, if a character is staked or torpored, a ST must know about the event, as well as the location of the body. If we don't know about it, it didn't happen.

If your character is killed, you will receive any Unspent XP on your character sheet to roll over into a new character. Any points from your character beyond that will be determined by ST Staff, depending on how and why the character was killed.

 

Equipment and Items

Items require an Item card approved by ST staff and will not be put on your Character sheet. If you want to get a certain item in the game, such as weapons or flammable material, you must get approval from the Storyteller. All items must be represented by a card (stamped by the official stamp or signed by the Storyteller). If you don't have the card, you don't have the item.

Props

If you choose, you may use props to represent items however you still need the card in your pocket. Any props must not look like real weapons, Illegal or dangerous items, or be offensive in nature. All weapon props must have ST Staff approval before you can use them in game and if you are in doubt about if a prop is appropriate or not, talk to a Staff member about it before using it in game.

 

 

 

 

Experience Points (XP)

When attending a regular VbN game, your character will earn Experience Points for attendance. Additional experience points may be earned for Excellent Role-playing, contributing food, drinks, or bringing printer paper, ink for the printer, etc.; or other things that in the ST staffs opinion add to the general gaming experience for everyone in the game. Experience points are awarded to the character not the player. In the case where a player plays an NPC, the xp goes to one of that players characters.

The Staff determines how much experience points you get per game not you!

Here are some basic point awards:

Attendance=2 xp

Good Role-playing =1 xp

Costume=1 xp

Food, Drink, Game Supplies =1 xp (total)

Travel (limited) =1 xp

 

The staff reserves the right to award extra xp when they deem it appropriate.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Downtimes

 

• Downtime is the period ranging from the call of End Game until the start of the Next gaming session.
• Activities allowed during downtime: learning disciplines, abilities or increasing Traits; attempts to gain Influence; interaction with other characters that does not require challenges.
• Activities NOT allowed during downtime: "Haven kills or any action that requires challenges on the part of more than one character (unless under mutual consent).
• Requests for small games to complete unfinished scenes/requested scenes can be presented to the ST team for approval. Any such scenes must have at least one member of the ST team (that is not involved intimately with the scene) present to narrate the scene.
• As always, the ST team may have the final call regarding downtime activities by the invoking of the "Reality Clause" (thus preventing characters from attempting to hunt down an Antediluvian or have conversations with True Brujah, etc)
• All down times must be turned in on or before the Wednesday before a game.All activities in the downtime are considered to have been going on since the previous game in terms of learning times, amounts of an item created, etc
• If you turn in an appropriately descriptive (I learn 1 level of Kindred Lore doesn't count) downtime you may receive 1 Downtime XP at ST Staff discretion, but this should not be considered automatic. A good rule of thumb is that the more descriptive (without mindless minutia) the better.

• No Copy and Paste . If it looks like you copied and pasted your downtime, it will not be accepted.
• Experience Points are awarded by Staff and not by the player. Please do not put any notes on xp that you think you might have earned in your downtimes. For accounting purposes, only count attendance xp earned at the last gathering for the downtimes.
• Please check and see if you have an ability, discipline, trait, background, etc. BERFORE you send in your downtime
• If you want to use abilities not from Laws of the Night, Revised, please include book and page number if you ever want to see it on your character sheet. If you are unsure if it is in the book, Check.
• If you wish to get an ability, discipline, trait, background, etc. please give a short, realistic explanation of how you are getting or improving it.
• One sentence explanations for higher levels of abilities, disciplines, traits, etc. will be rejected. They take more effort and cannot be a I am learning this from books and videos explanation. Level 4 + languages REQUIRE FULL immersion to achieve!
• There are only so many hours in a day.being a vampire doesnt change that fact of life. If your downtimes have too much for you to accomplish in a single downtime, the ENTIRE downtime will be rejected. I will not decide how to spend your points for you and open that can of worms.
• Items require an Item card approved by ST staff and will not be put on your Character sheet. If you want to get a certain item in the game, such as weapons or flammable material, you must get approval from the Storyteller. All items must be represented by a card (stamped by the official stamp or signed by the Storyteller). If you don't have the card, you don't have the item.
• Status is kept by the Harpy and not by the ST staff. All that will be on your sheets is Acknowledged.
• Check the Notes section of your Character sheet BEFORE coming to the staff with an issue. I put in the reasons that things in your downtimes were not added to your sheets in the notes most of the time.

 

Please use the following format or something similar :

Ability, discipline, trait, etc. level xp cost

(I.e. Lore: Storyteller 1 level1 xp)

Explain here how you can justify getting all of your new Abilities, disciplines, traits, etc. in a Short summery that covers who, what, when, and/or how. Remember that higher levels take more time and explanation.

Learning Times

Abilities, Disciplines, and Lores all take time to learn. A general rule of thumb is listed below but it is important to note how your character is learning unusual abilities, lores, or disciplines in your downtime.

 

Disciplines (Basic, Intermediate, and Advanced In-Clan)= 1 Downtime

Disciplines (Basic, Intermediate Out-of-Clan)= 1 Downtime

Disciplines (Advanced Out-of-Clan) = 2 Downtimes

Disciplines (Elder) = 1 Calendar Year

Combo powers/ Specializations = 1 Downtime

Abilities (1 Level) = 1 Downtime

Special Abilities = As defined by power

Traits (Physical, Social, or Mental)= 1 per category per Downtime

Willpower = 1 per Downtime

 

• Abilities have a learning cap of 5 dots per downtime. So you can learn five level 1 abilities or a level 2 and a level 3 in the same downtime but not a level 3 and a level 4 or a level 4 and 3 level 1 abilities
• You may only learn 1 discipline per downtime and/or teach 1 discipline per downtime.
• If learning any discipline other than one of the common 8 disciplines listed in LotN:R you must drink the blood of someone who can learn it In-Clan.
• All Out-of-Clan Disciplines must be learned from someone who has that Discipline In-Clan.

 

Elder Level Disciplines

Elder level disciplines can be used by PCs of eighth generation. For a PC to have an Elder level Discipline it needs to be in-clan and will take 1 full calendar year to learn. Any wishing to learn Elder level Disciplines need to pick an Anniversary Date. That will be the Date that they will obtain a new Elder Discipline each year. It will be put into the Notes section of your character sheet. Abilities and lower level disciplines may be learned at the same time.

 

OOC verses IC

For VBN, there is NO OOC except in the OOC area and to ask QUICK mechanic questions. So everything that is talked about or overheard can be used in-character unless you are in the designated OOC area. The Out-of-Character (OOC) area (room, table, etc) is the only place where you may be considered to be out of character, acting as yourself without the use of an out of character hand sign; in all other places, you are in-character, acting as your character. Please leave explanations for those people ghosting to the staff.

 

Out-of-Game Politics

 

1. There are none.

2. If there ever is any, see above.

 

Complaints

If you have a complaint about the game, the staff, or another player; feel free to bring it up to staff before or after game unless it directly affects the scene that you are currently in.

 

Meta-gaming

Meta-gaming is defined by the staff as:

1.)   The use of knowledge that there is no way your character could know.

2.)   Taking actions that your character would not for OOC reasons.

3.)   Lying to another player OOC about events that happened at game. This does not apply to in-character lying (one character lying to another character)

Any Player found to be Meta-gaming will have a Strike put against them.

 

Strikes

Strikes are a warning by the ST Staff that a players actions were found disruptive, damaging, or inappropriate for the game. Only the ST Staff can issue a Strike. If a player has a Strike put against them, they are being warned that they are creating an issue that is making the game not enjoyable for other players. If a player accumulates 3 Strikes, they will be asked to leave the game for a length of time and possibly permanently. A Strike last for 6 months if you do not acquire another during that time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Storytelling Staff (ST Staff)

 

Goals of the ST Staff

• To provide entertaining and challenging plots.
• To provide an enjoyable game environment.
• To remember this is a GAME.
• To remember that ALL rules may be thrown out for the sake of scene & story & Chronicle.
• The Storyteller and Narrators will not run plots specifically aimed at killing a Player Character or group of Player Characters; however they may run plots based off of character actions and Player Character death may result.
• Rules will not be changed to affect a specific player, character or coterie.

 

Voting

• All changes in the house rules must be passed by a majority vote of the ST Staff.
• Any member of the ST Staff may call for a vote on any matter. If the proposal is seconded, voting must be completed on it within 7 days and if it passes, it must be enacted within 48 hours. The only exception is in the case of disciplinary actions.
• Disciplinary actions of any kind require at least a 75% majority of the ST Staff to pass.

 

ST Staff members

• Chosen per previously stated voting rules.
• The minimum number of members is 3, the maximum number is 9.
• If a member of the ST Staff steps down for any reason, they cant be a member of the ST Staff for at least one full calendar year.
• Members of the ST Staff can take a leave of absence that can last from a minimum of one month to 1 year. ST Staff members in a leave of absence do not vote and do not count towards the size of the ST Staff.

 

Choosing a HST

• Any current member of the ST Staff may announce his/her candidacy for HST.
• HST candidates are voted on by active players of VbN
• Active VbN players

• Currently have an active character in VbN and
• Have attended at least 2 of the last 4 regular VbN games, or
• +Live outside the Phoenix Metro area yet still be active via downtime activities.
• Each player will be given a ballot at the game where the vote for HST will be taken or,
• In the case of players who cannot make the game, they must email their proxy vote to the ST Staff or call two members of the ST Staff.
• At least 3 members of the ST Staff must count all of the votes.
• The new HST is the one who receives the most votes.