Celerity
“It was like the guy was teleporting. Ay, boss, you can’t expect me to shoot a mook that’s faster than my ammo!” — Benito Giovanni
Throughout history, myths have described vampires as having preternatural speed and reflexes. They move in a blur, travel across surfaces that shouldn’t be able to hold their weight, and strike between heartbeats when fighting. Celerity is the discipline of extraordinary speed and precision. When in need, a vampire can expend her Blood to fuel her actions, moving with startling quickness.
Celerity allows you to take additional actions. These extra actions resolve in a series of special rounds known as Celerity rounds. After resolving the everyman round of actions for all characters (performed in initiative order), the Storyteller progresses the combat into the first Celerity round. Each Celerity round is processed in initiative order. After all character actions on the first Celerity round are complete, the Storyteller progresses to a second Celerity round, and so forth, until all players involved have expended all of their actions.
The everyman round and all subsequent Celerity rounds comprise a single turn. Once all Celerity rounds have been resolved, the Storyteller begins a new turn, starting with a new everyman round and moving through Celerity rounds once more.
You can only take Physical actions during a Celerity round. Your character may move, attack, or activate a Physical power, but cannot engage in any Mental or Social challenges.
You must spend 1 Blood point to activate Celerity for the turn. That expenditure activates all Celerity powers you possess. Activating Celerity doesn’t require an action and can be done at any time (even before your turn in the initiative order). Some Celerity-based techniques and elder powers require the expenditure of additional Blood or the use of an action to activate. If so, that requirement will be denoted in the individual power.
Each dot of Celerity represents an additional increase in physical speed, and each dot stacks with all mechanical bonuses granted by other dots of this discipline. If a character has Rapidity (Celerity •••), she has the bonuses granted by Rapidity, and also the bonuses granted by Alacrity (Celerity •) and Swiftness (Celerity ••), which she must possess to reach Rapidity.
Using Celerity at the Rapidity level or beyond is a breach of the Masquerade, should it be seen by mortals.
There is no standardized Celerity test pool.
Celerity and Temporis: A character who has purchased any amount of Celerity cannot purchase Temporis. Likewise, a character who has purchased any amount of Temporis can never purchase Celerity.
Focus [Dexterity]: Anytime you activate Celerity, your character gains +2 to Dodge-based defensive test pools.
• Alacrity
You are capable of an incredibly fast response time. By activating Alacrity, you have the ability to make incredibly rapid movements, increasing both reaction speed and reflexes.
System: When you spend Blood to activate Celerity, your initiative increases by the sum of all of the Celerity powers you possess, including Celerity elder powers and Celerity-based techniques.
•• Swiftness
Your body responds so quickly that the world around you seems to slow down. You can use this extra time to draw a bead, increasing your accuracy with ranged weapons.
System: When making a ranged attack, you gain a +5 bonus to determine whether or not the attack scores an exceptional success. Additionally, when dodging, you receive a +5 bonus to your test pool for the purpose of comparing attributes to determine if your attacker has achieved an exceptional success.
••• Rapidity
You can move faster than humanly possible. Before a normal human can move or breathe, you are already acting a second time.
System: When you activate Celerity, you gain an extra round of actions (one simple action and one standard action). Resolve these actions during the first Celerity round.
•••• Legerity
At this speed, you can move faster than the human eye can track clearly. You are a blur to those without this power, and your incredible speed allows for plenty of time to focus, aim, and fire.
System: All of your Dodge-based defensive test pools receive a +2 wild card bonus while Celerity is active. This bonus stacks with the +2 Dodge bonuses granted by the Dexterity attribute focus. Additionally, when you score an exceptional success with a mundane ranged attack (one not related to any supernatural discipline) while Celerity is active, your character inflicts 2 additional points of damage instead of the standard 1 additional point.
••••• Fleetness
You can become a whirlwind of velocity, moving with preternatural speed. Your attacks are a blur of constant motion. You flit back and forth, appearing almost to blink in and out of focus as you fight.
System: When you activate Celerity, you gain an extra round of actions (one simple action and one standard action). Resolve these actions during the second Celerity round.
