Merits and Flaws
Contents
Overview
Merits are special advantages that help distinguish a character and show the effects of her history and ongoing story. Flaws are disadvantages that pose challenges to a character’s nightly existence and provide a player a few extra experience points (XP) to spend elsewhere on her sheet. These qualities allow you to customize your character by specifying particular advantages or disadvantages that give added depth and personality. Both merits and flaws are optional. If you don’t see any that suit your character, you can create your character and play without adding any to your sheet.
Each merit and flaw has a specific XP cost associated with it. This number indicates the points needed to purchase a merit or the points you will receive for taking a flaw. You may purchase up to 7 points of merits. However, a character can never have more than 7 points of merits at any time. This rule encourages players to make significant choices about the qualities that make a character unique.
In addition, you may select flaws at character creation. Flaws add up to 7 XP to your character, but also give that character a notable disadvantage in the game. Flaws are designed to be interesting, significant, and to exemplify your character’s troubled past or personal prohibitions. You should try to roleplay your character’s flaws as much as possible, helping the Storyteller create a rich and detailed chronicle. Perfect people are no fun to roleplay, and characters with authentic-feeling traumas, biases, and failings bring life and vibrancy to the game.
A Storyteller may choose to include or prohibit any merit or flaw that she feels is inappropriate for her chronicle. Merits can be removed from a character sheet or flaws may be added to that sheet (either temporarily or permanently) as the Storyteller sees fit, so long as a character never has more than 7 XP of merits and does not receive more than 7 XP from flaws at any time.
Any merit effect that requires the expenditure of Blood counts as a supernatural power. For the purpose of powers like Possession, clan-specific merits count as 1-dot in-clan powers; general merits are not considered in-clan. It is possible to lose access to part of a merit without losing access to the entire merit. For example, while using Possession, a Giovanni’s wraith Retainer will not disappear, but without the proper focus, the Giovanni may not be able to spend Blood to summon it.
Merit effects that alter a character’s physical form (permanently or temporarily) are not available while that character is not in her real body. For example, while using Possession, a character loses access to merits such as Rugged, Unnatural Adaptation, and Shape of Beast’s Wrath.
Adding Merits and Flaws
If you have not purchased the maximum points of merits for your character, or did not take the maximum amount of XP in flaws, you may purchase merits and flaws during the chronicle, with Storyteller permission. Note that there are some merits and flaws that can only be purchased at character creation and cannot be added to a character sheet thereafter. These merits and flaws represent qualities that happened in a vampire’s history, and they cannot suddenly develop now. Some examples of these items include: all bloodline merits, clan rarity merits, Embrace-related flaws, and merits and flaws that directly represent events occurring prior to a character’s Embrace. A character could spontaneously become a Medium after going through a ghost-related plot, for example, but she could not develop a bloodline that she did not acquire at her Embrace.
To purchase a merit, obtain your Storyteller’s permission, expend a downtime action and the necessary XP, and then add that merit to your character sheet. This purchase cannot cause the character’s total point value of merits to exceed 7. Benefits conveyed by a merit begin immediately upon the merit’s purchase.
If you choose to replace a removed merit with a new one, you must pay for the new merit normally; a character cannot simply “swap merits.” For example, let’s assume a player has her Storyteller’s permission to remove the Calm Heart merit from her character sheet and add the Daredevil merit. The player must first remove Calm Heart, receiving no refunded XP when that merit is removed. She must then spend 2 XP to place the Daredevil merit on her sheet.
If you have any questions about whether a specific merit or flaw is appropriate for purchase during the play of your chronicle, speak to your Storyteller.
Removing Merits and Flaws
As your character grows, you may wish to remove some of her merits or flaws. If a merit or flaw is integral to the function of your character sheet, it cannot be removed. These merits and flaws represent qualities that happened in a vampire’s history. They cannot vanish, because that history cannot be erased. As stated above, these items include: all bloodline merits, clan rarity merits, Embrace-related flaws, and merits and flaws which directly represent events that occurred prior to a character’s Embrace.
To remove a merit, obtain your Storyteller’s permission, expend a downtime action, and then remove that merit from your character sheet. This action does not refund any of the XP used to purchase that merit; these XP are lost.
Benefits conveyed by a merit cease immediately upon the merit’s removal. When you remove a merit that granted the character a special ability or allowed you to buy an item at decreased cost, you must strip the power or item granted by that merit from your sheet when you remove the merit. You gain no refund of any XP used to purchase that item; those XP are lost.
For example, if you choose to remove a merit that allowed you to purchase a fourth discipline at in-clan costs, all dots of that discipline would be removed from the character’s sheet without XP refund. You might choose to repurchase the discipline later, at out-of-clan costs, but you must follow the normal procedure for your character to learn an out-of-clan power, including drinking a point of the teacher’s blood and spending downtime actions in study of the discipline. If a player chooses to remove the Efficient Learner merit, the character loses all out-of-clan disciplines purchased using that merit, with no refund of XP.
To remove a flaw from your character sheet, you must spend XP equal to twice the original benefit of the flaw. A 3-point flaw requires 6 XP to remove, and so forth. If you have any questions about whether a specific merit or flaw is appropriate to be removed during the play of your chronicle, speak to your Storyteller.
Repeated Merits or Flaws
Unless otherwise stated in the mechanics of a merit or flaw you cannot purchase a specific merit or flaw more than once. A character cannot have Rugged multiple times, gaining a plethora of additional health levels nor take the flaw Deep Sleeper twice and claim to be “Sleepier.”
Inappropriate Flaws
Players cannot purchase flaws that do not impact their characters. Such flaws include:
• Flaws that duplicate a clan’s innate weakness, such as purchasing the Bound to the Earth flaw on a Tzimisce character
• Flaws that are inappropriate to the character’s creature type, such as purchasing the Beast in the Mirror flaw on a character who is a ghoul
• Flaws that are negated by a power or merit the character possesses, such as purchasing both the Deep Sleeper flaw and the Blind the Sun technique
• Flaws that are made irrelevant by circumstances of plot or setting. You cannot have a flaw that requires you to fear all Ravnos, if there are no Ravnos allowed in your Storyteller’s setting.
• Merits and flaws that are diametrically opposed in story or in mechanics. A character cannot purchase Acute Sense: Hearing and also possess the Hard of Hearing flaw. If you gain a power or ability that negates the detriments of a flaw your character possesses or makes that flaw insignificant, you must immediately buy off the flaw. Players who are forced to buy off a flaw in this manner may go into debt if they do not already possess enough earned XP to buy off the flaw; if you go into debt for this reason, the next XP earned by this character must be entirely allocated to repaying that flaw, until the experience debt is resolved.
Rarity Merits
When a Storyteller creates her setting, she establishes the rarity of certain options, such as the various clans. For example, in the Camarilla setting, Tremere are common, but Lasombra are rare. In the Sabbat setting, Lasombra are common, but Tremere are uncommon. This rarity helps a Storyteller portray the setting, ensuring that the created characters follow guidelines established by the history of her chronicle.
Each setting establishes a list of common, uncommon, and rare clans. A setting’s common clans are the most appropriate for play. There is no merit cost for playing a clan that is common in your chronicle’s setting. To play a clan denoted as uncommon or rare, you must purchase the associated merit, below.
Buying an uncommon, rare, or restricted clan merit doesn’t mean that your character is an established member of the base society in that setting. It simply means the character is tolerated in that setting, and she may attend gatherings or be part of politics and other events. Purchasing the Rare Clan merit in a Camarilla setting doesn’t automatically make your Baali an upstanding member of the Camarilla.
Your character’s loyalties are determined by you with the help and support of your Storyteller.
Rarity merits count against a character’s merit limit of 7 points. Purchasing the Rare Clan merit means you have spent 4 points and may only buy 3 more points of merits for this character.
Your Storyteller may limit some clans more strictly. When a clan is noted as Restricted or is not on the list of acceptable clans for a setting, that indicates your Storyteller feels the clan is not appropriate for her chronicle. You must obtain your Storyteller’s permission before purchasing the Restricted Clan merit to play a certain clan. The Restricted Clan merit may also be purchased to play a clan’s bloodline if it would cost more than 7 XP due to rarity in your setting. If playing a Lasombra is rare in your setting, you would need to pay 4 XP to play this clan; taking the Lasombra bloodline Kiaysd (a 4 point merit) would cost another 4 XP, a total of 8 XP. Ordinarily, that combination of merits would exceed the 7-point merit cap. However, with your Storyteller’s permission, you may play that character type with a 6-point expenditure by purchasing the Restricted Clan merit.
For example, if you wanted to play the Lamia bloodline (4 merit points) of the Cappadocian clan (Rare Clan: 4 merit points) in the Camarilla setting, you would use the Restricted Clan merit instead to pay for the combination of merits.
If you are using one of the Mind’s Eye Theatre (MET) settings, check the setting’s corresponding rarity list for clans, or speak with your Storyteller.
Uncommon Clan (2 point merit)
Your character is a member of an uncommon clan, one that is not ordinarily found in your chronicle’s setting. This clan is not often seen, and she may be something of an outsider. You will find few other individuals of her clan within this setting, and she may be afforded fewer benefits than “proper members” of society.
Rare Clan (4 point merit)
Your character is a member of a rare clan, one that is very infrequently found in your chronicle’s setting. Such characters may be loners, outcasts, or solitary observers of society, and they may be treated poorly or shunned by the rest of the characters in play, as may be appropriate to the setting.
Restricted Clan (6 point merit)
With this merit you can portray a clan that is not listed in your chronicle’s setting. Check with your Storyteller before choosing this merit. The Storyteller may not allow you to purchase this merit if she wants to completely forbid certain clans or bloodlines that do not mesh well with her setting. With your Storyteller’s permission, you may use this merit to portray an unusual clan’s bloodline, even if the total cost for playing that bloodline (rarity merit cost for the base clan plus bloodline merit cost) would otherwise total more than 6 points of merits.
Bloodline Merits
The World of Darkness is a broad and varied place, with many unorthodox branches of each clan spanning out across the continents. The word “bloodline” indicates a sub-group of a clan; some few vampires of the clan whose vitae has altered over the centuries, developing different powers or unusual capabilities. Not all of these branches carry alterations of the vitae, some have cultural rather than physical changes. If a bloodline in the World of Darkness retains the same discipline set as a parent clan and has no significant mechanical differences, then it is a cultural bloodline. You may choose to play a member of a cultural bloodline with your Storyteller’s permission, at no merit cost. There are no mechanical changes to the character’s sheet, and you may simply roleplay any cultural or philosophical differences between that sub-group and the parent clan.
However, some bloodlines described in the World of Darkness have significant changes to their vitae, resulting in altered in-clan disciplines, mechanical benefits, or additional detriments. Playing a member of one of these bloodlines requires the purchase of a bloodline merit, to indicate that the character is mechanically different from her parent clan. Bloodline merits must be purchased at character creation (or when a mortal or ghoul character becomes a vampire), as they reflect an aspect of the character’s Embrace. A character’s clan and bloodline must be the same as her sire; a sire’s Embrace always creates a vampire of her clan and bloodline (if any). If the sire has no bloodline, then the childe will always be a member of the standard clan (just like the sire). Remember that a character can never have more than one bloodline merit, and you cannot remove that merit from the character’s sheet.
A more detailed description of each bloodline mentioned is listed under the parent clan’s entry in this wiki.
Default Clans
Sometimes, a Storyteller will decide that a certain clan’s bloodline is the default version of that clan in her setting. In this case, the bloodline costs no additional points to purchase, save those required by the appropriate rarity merit for the clan itself. In addition, the parent clan takes on the merit point cost normally applied to the bloodline.
If your setting requires requires a rarity merit to play a clan, that rarity merit purchases the bloodline as the default clan. For example, the Samedi are a bloodline of the Cappadocian clan, and require the purchase of a 2-point bloodline merit. In the Camarilla setting, however, Samedi are the standard version of the Cappadocian. Further, the Camarilla style guide indicates that Cappadocians are rare, and requires the player to purchase the Rare Clan merit if she wishes play one. You will see this denoted as: Cappadocian (Samedi). This means that if you purchase the Rare Clan merit for 4 points, you are purchasing a Samedi, which has the discipline set and all the benefits and detriments described under the Samedi bloodline of the Cappadocian clan, without further expenditures. If you wish to play a true Cappadocian in the Camarilla setting, you must purchase the Rare Clan merit, and then also purchase a 2-point bloodline (the cost of the Samedi bloodline merit) to have the disciplines, benefits, and detriments of a true Cappadocian.
If a default bloodline is established, it will always be clearly denoted in the Setting-Specific Mechanics section of the settings material. Be sure to speak with your Storyteller if you have any questions as to standard and default clans in her chronicle.
