List of Status Traits

Abiding Status Traits

Authority (abiding)

You enjoy complete control over your jurisdiction. You may issue praise and respect, or command punishment – corporal or capital – to all those within.

• Passive: While you possess Authority, you can award an individual the fleeting status Courageous, Defender, Honorable, or Loyal or without expending this status. An individual can only hold a single status from your use of Authority at a time, but can benefit from repeated uses of Authority, so long as they originate from separate sources.

• Spent: You can expend Authority to punish or pardon another character, giving or removing the negative status Warned or Forsaken.

Commander (abiding)

You are a sword of your sect, empowered by the highest leadership to enforce justice anywhere within the sect’s dominion. You can administer punishments, both corporal and social, as you see fit.

• Passive: While you possess Commander, you may issue orders to any member of your sect who does not possess the status Authority, and you expect those orders to be obeyed. Those who defy you or disobey a direct order have all fleeting status traits they possess expended without effect. Fleeting traits lost in this manner are lost temporarily, and they return after one month or two games. The target cannot gain any further fleeting status while under this effect. Further, you may award up to three individuals the status Enforcer for a single night, deputizing them under your command.

• Spent: You may expend Commander to award fleeting status to up to three characters, awarding each individual either Courageous or Loyal.

Enforcer (abiding)

You are authority’s right hand. You have the power to enforce society’s laws and to ensure punishment for those who break the codes of your sect or defy the will of the local authority.

• Passive: While you possess Enforcer, you may carry weapons to any gathering, including restricted locations. Vampiric authorities must allow you to go armed. (Note that mortal authorities, and individuals not of your sect, are under no such agreement.) You may also deputize up to two other members of your sect, granting them the fleeting status Defender for a single night.

• Spent: You can expend Enforcer to issue the negative status Warned to an individual whom you legitimately believe has broken the law of your sect or local domain.

Established (abiding)

You are a voice of a faction within the sect, possibly the leader of a clan, pack, or gang. Your words are respected, and others seek your advice in difficult decisions.

• Passive: While you possess Established, an individual who openly insults, threatens, or attacks you automatically receives the negative status Warned. Offenses made entirely in private, or which are subtle enough to be obscured, do not trigger this passive effect. Characters that currently possess the Authority, Commander, or Triumphant status traits are immune to this passive effect.

• Spent: You can expend Established to award an individual the fleeting status Favored.

Prominent (abiding)

You are society’s voice, and others listen to you on matters of propriety. You can determine which actions are proper social behavior and which actions are against the customs of your sect.

• Passive: While you possess Prominent, you may award any individual the fleeting status Honorable or Courteous without expending this status. An individual can only hold a single status from your Prominent at a time, but can benefit from repeated uses of Prominent so long as they originate from separate sources.

• Spent: If you expend Prominent, an individual you target must physically leave a scene (small area or single room) for the next 10 minutes, effectively exiling them from a social situation. If they do not do so, they gain the negative status Disgraced. Prominent cannot be expended in combat.

Fleeting Status Traits

Courteous (fleeting)

Your words and actions are always the height of Kindred courtesy. You are known to adhere the customs of your sect and provide a genteel role-model for others.

• Passive: While you possess Courteous, you cannot be targeted by another character’s use of the Subterfuge skill to redirect blame for the use of a supernatural power. For more information on the Subterfuge system mechanic, see Chapter Three: Character Creation, page 97.

• Spent: You can expend Courteous to overcome any political gaffe or etiquette-related error you have made in the last five minutes. The error did occur, but those who would be offended by it must accept your apology and cannot hold the error against you.

Courageous (fleeting)

You have often thrown yourself into battle or controversy, and the tales of your exploits have spread through the sect. You are known for your courage and competitive prowess.

• Passive: While you possess Courageous, you can use a combat maneuver once per game without spending Willpower. You can only use this passive ability when following the directives of someone who possesses the Authority or Commander abiding status.

• Spent: So long as you are not in the process of violating the laws of your sect, you may expend Courageous to allow one character (yourself or another individual) to use a combat maneuver without spending Willpower.

Defender (fleeting)

You have been chosen to protect the citizens of your sect, in part or in whole, and as such, you are allowed to carry weapons into peaceful gatherings.

• Passive: While you possess Defender, you may carry weapons to any gathering, including restricted locations. Vampiric authorities must allow you to go armed. (Note that mortal authorities, and individuals not of your sect, are under no such agreement.)

• Spent: You may expend Defender when you perform an action that would cause you to gain Beast traits to reduce the number of Beast traits gained by 1. You cannot use more than one Defender status on a single sin.

Favored (fleeting)

You have been lauded by a patron within your clan or sect. This patron supports your advancement and shields you from harm.

• Passive: While you possess Favored, you are known to have the active support of a patron. An individual who openly attacks you automatically receives the negative status Warned. Characters who currently possess the Authority, Commander, or Triumphant status traits are immune to this passive effect.

• Spent: If you expend Favored when someone awards you negative status, that negative status is negated before it is applied. The same character cannot attempt to award you negative status for the rest of the evening.

Honorable (fleeting)

In a world of lies, deception, and subterfuge, you are known for your sterling reputation. Your word is solid enough that it can even protect others; all you need do is give your oath on their behalf.

• Passive: While you possess Honorable, individuals who wish to openly accuse you of lying must expend one positive status (of any kind) in order to make the accusation. Even if you possess more than one Honorable trait, only one status must be expended to overcome this passive effect.

• Spent: You can expend Honorable during a scene in which you would otherwise be politically forced to leave. You are allowed to join the scene or remain present. When you expend Honorable in this manner, you are immune to the spend bonus of the abiding status Prominent for the rest of the scene.

Loyal (fleeting)

You have proven your loyalty to your sect. Other individuals do not question your allegiance to sect law and custom.

• Passive: If you receive the Warned status while you possess Loyal, the status of Loyal is stripped without expenditure rather than applying the status Warned.

• Spent: You may expend Loyal to acquire any one piece of equipment or general information (such as the known location of another character) on short notice. This assistance comes from NPC minions of your sect within five minutes of this expenditure. You cannot use Loyal to gain secret or protected information, or unique equipment, but you can use it to acquire anything that a group of ghouls or low-level vampires can acquire with relative ease.

Praised (fleeting)

You have rightfully obeyed the custom of status, enforcing peer pressure on an individual who has been socially incompetent, or otherwise upholding the social norm. Your presence is welcomed in the territories of your patron.

• Passive: The Praised status has no passive benefit.

• Spent: You can expend Praised to claim a small favor (the level of assistance required from a trivial boon) from any other Accepted member of your sect. You cannot use this to gain a boon from a character who is already in your debt.

Triumphant (fleeting)

You have publically defeated an impressive enemy of the sect without aid or otherwise performed a critical and life-risking service to your sect. When this event occurs, you gain the status trait of Triumphant.

The status trait Triumphant can only be given by NPCs. For more information on gaining this status, check the setting guide for your chronicle or speak with your Storyteller.

• Passive: While you possess Triumphant, you are granted special privileges at important gatherings of your sect: the best seating, advance notice of important attendees, and other advantages. You are granted the right to feed in any domain controlled by your sect. The number of downtime actions required for you to feed is reduced by 1, to a minimum of 0.

• Spent: You can expend Triumphant to ignore the censure of all negative status possessed by you or another character for one hour. You gain this benefit even if you have negative status that would otherwise prevent you from using status traits.

Victorious (fleeting)

You have participated in a symbel, whether a duel or an ordeal, and emerged victorious. The sect lauds your prowess.

• Passive: On the night you gain the Victorious status trait, other characters capable of giving positive status can give you such status without expenditure.

• Spent: You can expend Victorious when you expend any other status to immediately regain the spent trait. Alternately, you can expend the Victorious status to remove Warned from yourself or another character within the same jurisdiction where you gained the Victorious trait.

Negative Status Traits

Each negative status trait has a censure, a prohibition placed upon the holder’s activities. These prohibitions are not magical or supernaturally enforced; they are social restrictions that the character is expected to obey for the period she holds this negative status. If a sect officer discovers that a character is in violation of a censure, the censured character suffers the penalties assigned by the trait’s mechanical systems.

Warned (negative)

You have been warned to cease your poor behavior. Should you continue acting in this manner, you will be severely punished for your continued malfeasance.

• Censure: While you carry the Warned status, you may not speak to any officer of your sect in public unless that officer first speaks to you; further, you may not contradict an officer of your sect. If you speak inappropriately, or contradict an officer, you can avoid breaking this censure by apologizing and offering the officer a minor boon.

Creative officers may impose alternate restrictions. These might include cutting off the offender’s finger and ordering the Warned character not to regrow it until this status is removed or forcing the offender to bear a visible mark of failure for the duration of the status Warned. These alternate restrictions cannot be used to significantly handicap a character or to force a character into a dangerous situation. If the Storyteller believes this status is being abused, she may overrule the alternate restriction and impose the default censure instead.

The Warned negative status lasts for two games or one month, whichever is longer. If a character receives another Warned status while she already possesses Warned, the total duration is increased by two games or one month, whichever is longer. This continues with every further application of Warned.

• Punishment: If a character with the Warned status is found to break the censure of this status, she gains the additional status trait Disgraced. A character does not lose the negative status Warned when she receives Disgraced.

Disgraced (negative)

Your activities have placed a stain on your reputation; you are distinctly out-of-favor among your sectmates.

• Censure: While you carry the Disgraced status, the sect prohibits you from carrying weapons or actively using powers in the presence of an officer of your sect, unless you receive the officer’s express permission. Further, you may not feed within your sect’s territories, but must seek scraps elsewhere. A character cannot spend or gain status while she possesses the Disgraced status trait. Other characters are not required to repay boons owed to a character possessing this status. If you are found in violation of this censure by a sect officer, you can avoid punishment by apologizing and offering the officer a major boon.

Anyone who publicly insults a Disgraced character gains the fleeting status trait Praised. Multiple characters can gain status for insulting a Disgraced individual, but no character can benefit from a single individual’s

Disgraced censure more than once per game.

The Disgraced status lasts as long as you hold one or more Warned negative status traits. If you do not possess a Warned negative status when you are awarded Disgraced, then the negative status lasts for two games or one month, whichever is longer.

• Punishment: If a character with the Disgraced status is found to break the censure of this status, she gains the additional status trait Forsaken. A character does not lose the negative status Warned or Disgraced when she receives Forsaken.

Forsaken (negative)

You have broken society’s boundaries so often that the sect has ceased to grant you its protection. Although you may or may not be actively hunted, your death would not count as a breach of sect law.

• Censure: While you hold the Forsaken negative status, you are no longer considered Accepted by your sect. You hold no status or position, and you may be destroyed without repercussion from your sect. Society’s laws prohibiting your Final Death no longer apply to you.

A character who possesses the Authority status trait may allow you to visit or reside within her domain, but cannot remove the Forsaken negative status without an expenditure of the Authority status. A Forsaken character retains this status until she is formally forgiven by a character expending the Authority status on her behalf.

Normally a character cannot become Forsaken unless she was first Warned and then Disgraced. However, it is possible for some sect officers to declare an individual Forsaken by their sect as part of a formal hunt for that character’s Final Death. If another sect member kills a vampire who possesses the status trait Forsaken, that individual gains the status trait Triumphant. Only one character may gain status from the death of a Forsaken vampire.