House Rules

A copy of the V20 Core Rulebook is available at all games. Please ask an ST.

**This is a trigger warning for rules regarding themes of SA & themes of child abuse at the bottom of this page**

In – Character Chats

If an ST has not been included in or informed of an in character chat and its contents, it has not taken place in GV canon and any claims made of its contents such as boons exchanged, powers used, knowledge shared, items given etc… has not taken place.

Agreement must be given by both parties to the chat of it’s existence and events or proof provided for the Storytellers to accept any exchanges made during it.

Please refer to the IN CHARACTER CHATS section of the handbook as voted in by players in 2022 for the full list of rules and guidance regarding this method of play.

Character Sheets

A player cannot have 2 character sheets for 1 player character.
Any alternate personality or alternate identity skills must be on the main character sheet in order to be used. You can make a role-playing choice to use or not use certain dots, but the full ‘group’ capability must be spent on the sheet.
All players should receive a dot of clan status, sect status and a dot of your clan’s lore at character generation. Please notify an ST if this does not generate automatically.

Character Generation

The Storytellers reserve the right to refuse any character concept or part of a character concept. This is usually to keep a decent balance of clans in the game.

Generation

The lowest generation you can get at character generation is 8th Generation. If you reach 6th Generation or below in gameplay your character will become an NPC.

Age Roll

This is available to all players but is only recommended to long term players who have the in game knowledge of the GV canon to back up the characters age. This is to help provide the option for a more diverse set of characters.

Each point of Age gives 25 XP. Minus 10 points of humanity and gain an enemy or 1 dot of enemy.
The XP gained from this roll is given after character generation and cannot be spent at character generation costs for XP spends (also called freebie point costs).
If you choose to attempt this: The STs will roll a d100 and they will give you the result.

26-100: You do not pass the roll and you gain nothing.

11-25: Age 1. Within this range you gain 25xp. You lose 10 points of humanity and you gain 1 dot of enemy.

4-10: Age 2. With this roll you gain 50xp. You lose 20 points of humanity and you gain 2x 1 dot enemies or a 2 dot enemy.

1-3,: Age 3 . At this point you get 75 XP, You lose 30 points of humanity and you gain either 3 x 1 dot enemies or a 3 dot enemy

Changing Flaws & Backgrounds from creation

This relates to those that granted the character points at creation.

If they are to be changed it must be with appropriate role play over an extended period of time (which is usually months at least). Also, with approval of the STs. These Merits/Flaws should be replaced with others to an equivalent value – ideally related to the Character history etc. You do not need to spend XP to change these.

Example: Flaw: New Arrival (Level-1) To buy off this flaw its almost something that happens naturally once you are accepted etc.

Example: Rising Star (Level +3) you have been in court for a long time and as such this is no longer relevant to the character.

Downtime Orders

Each player gets 6 orders points per month.
Each order point should be dedicated to a specific action that takes no more than a few nights to complete.

Ghouls

Players may only include 6 active ghouls named in their order with simple tasks assigned to them. They can all be included in 1 order point but failure to include them will result in the STs assuming they are not being fed for the month.

Bare in mind this is meant to cover the time it takes for you to keep the bond with them and to feed them so the tasks you assign to them should be simple and easy to complete. e.g. surveillance that you can get feedback for, creating things like artwork for you, working a day job to give you money etc.

This is not a way to get 6 more orders squeezed into one.

If you choose to have more than 6 ghouls this will cause blood pool issues that may affect your blood reserves.

Training

You may complete up to 4 training related asks in a single order point provided that they are all 3 dots or less. This can be giving or receiving training for Attributes and Abilities.
Disciplines & 4+ dot learning: Any skill at 4 dots or higher is considered to be something that you have mastered and as such you need to submit it as a separate order with a basic description of the training and the specialization you are taking.
You can only learn one out of clan discipline dot per month.
Regarding disciplines, you can only teach your own in clan disciplines.

You gain one level of blood bond for every out of clan discipline dot learned.

Lores & Secret knowledge

These require a teacher for every level of learning. Sometimes you may find a textbook that is able to give you 1 dot of a lore but this is at ST discretion (aka this is usually a plot reward)

Dice Pool/ Trackers

You get one dice roll per order, although Storytellers may use more than one if they feel it is necessary to the plot.

Please send your preferred dice rolls with each order point.

This should be as per the V20 system:

Attribute + Ability

Attribute + Background

Backgrounds do not stack. it’s the most appropriate background from those you have for the task at hand.
Disciplines can either give a general boost to what you are doing, or you can state you are using a specific power from those available to you to increase your chances of success.

In your orders this should look like this:

Attribute + (Ability/Background)+ Discipline

Willpower

You automatically regain one willpower point per month. This can be further enhanced through orders or character actions in linears.

Bloodbonds

Levels

Level 1 blood bond: At this level, your thoughts over the month linger on your regnant. If you don’t spend an orders point dedicated to them, then you will need to pass a willpower check at difficulty 6 each month, or you lose one of your order points (chosen at random). Examples of actions your character might take are doing something to help them, dreaming about them, stalk them, or just spending hours working out the perfect outfit the next time you see them.

Level 2 blood bond: At least 3 orders points must be dedicated to aiding or following your regnant or resisting the overwhelming urge to do so.

Level 3 blood bond: At least 5 order points must be dedicated to your regnant.

Blood Bond Degeneration

Level 1 and 2 blood bonds degenerate at the rate of one step every three months without vitae. Level 3 bonds will require outside help to break often, with dire consequences that will put your character in danger.

The degeneration begins when you go a full three months without drinking more vitae (except for level 3). If you do drink an addition blood point, you go up to the next level with all the downsides.

For example:

You get a 1 point blood bond
After 2 months you drink again, raising you to a 2 point bond
3 months later (5 months total) you drop to a level 1 bond
And 3 months after that (8 months total) you’d finally be free

Disciplines

Vicissitude

Vicissitude 2 or higher may be used to heal bashing damage taken by mortals. Vicissitude 3 or higher allows you to heal lethal taken by mortals. Healing supernaturals requires combo disciplines (eg. Sculpt the Flowing wound) or specific diciplines/rituals. Supernatural powers can only ever heal a wound once (ie you can’t take two rolls on two turns to try and heal the same knife wound)

Koldonic Sorcery

Way of Spirit – Clarification

Way of Spirit allows you to see & talk to the spirits of the Land &/or animals. Everything has a spirit.

WP roll = to the difficulty to activate, So level of power +3 I.e activate level 1 is Diff 4 up to Level 5 Diff 8. a WP point can still be spent. If the vampire only rolls a max of 5 for any success they can only see up to the 2 dot limit. A botch is still possible.

Backgrounds

If all your extended backgrounds (the text boxes explaining your backgrounds) are filled in. You receive 1 additional XP for having them all filled in. This is a one off reward.
In general, all extended backgrounds on your character sheet should be filed in. If they are not filled in and we need to reference the specifics of the background in orders or at game, then they will be considered 1 DOT lower than they are on your character sheet.
As in the V20 rulebook, Backgrounds cannot be increased with XP. However, they can be increased with Orders. For example, one might spend an Order rolling Charisma + Subterfuge to beguile mortals and increase the Herd background. The Storytellers will assign dots of Backgrounds to you once you have achieved a certain number of rolls (generally 1 dot = 5 successes, 2 dots = 10, 3 dots= 15 etc).

Your character is defined as much by the backgrounds they don’t have as by the backgrounds they do. Other characters will react with surprise if you do not have at least one dot in each of the following-

Haven: With 0 dots in Haven, you are homeless.

Resources: With 0 dots in Resources, you are penniless.

Status: With 0 dots in Status, you have either not been released by your sire or are Caitiff or are otherwise looked down upon and universally disliked for some reason.

Haven

The background ‘Haven’ covers a single property that is not a domain as granted by the Prince but merely a place to sleep and live. This allows a character to control a property in order to ensure their security while sleeping. The Haven covers up to the property boundary. Dots in this background contribute to the quality and safety of this haven. A 1 dot haven can be a castle but it is a castle with a leaky roof and a tiny corner you can curl up in to escape the sunlight in the morning. Say that you decide to fix the windows to include shutters to block out sunlight and put this in orders then you get to roll for Haven 2 and the Storytellers will reply with how successful your attempt was.

This comes into play if someone tries to attack or invade your haven mostly but also on how appropriate it is to invite guests of significant standing to your home.

If you do not have a dot in Haven, you are homeless and have no where safe from sunlight to hide. You will be reliant on what invitations of hospitality you can get from others.

Path Changes

A story reason is needed for both an increase and decrease in a character path. This is merely the mechanics of how it would work if this has been achieved or caused through role play and in game actions.

As GVLARP runs a 1-100 level for the path not 1-10. Changes are more subtle and also take longer.

There should always be an IC reason for the path change & it needs to match the hierarchy of sins for the path.

Path Loss:

If you commit a cardinal sin (i.e. path level 1-3, no excuse for that level of sin) you lose 10 points – no roll.

If you commit a lesser sin, and the ST agrees, you can roll to mitigate loss. The loss is initially 10 points, but you roll conscience / conviction – every success ‘saves’ you losing 2 points. (e.g. a character has Conscience 5, rolls 5 dice:– gets 2 successes so only loses 6 points)

A botch uses the rules out the book.

Path Gain:

There always needs to be a good reason to increase path. The appropriate virtue is rolled, and for each success, the character gains 2 path. (e.g. a character has Conscience 5, rolls 5 dice:– gets 4 successes so gains 8 points)

Missing In Action

If you plan to take a break from the game or leave for a long period of time/altogether then you should submit break/closing orders: a set of orders detailing actions that your pc takes e.g. leaving to learn a new path, leaving to return to your Clan’s stronghold etc…

Clarification of terms:

On break: not submitting orders or attending the game for a period of time.

Exiting: leaving the game altogether.

Closing orders: a final set of orders that detail your characters pathway to the future. Maybe they want to achieve enlightenment and go on a pilgrimage, maybe they simply wish to retire from society and live out their nights in a remote domain and fade from memory.

Players on break:

When taking a break from the game, if the player notifies the ST, for the next 3 months their character and assets will be frozen. Your PC will be IC visiting clan out of reach of current and active players. They cannot be declared boon broken, attacked etc in this time.

After the 3 month period, if you have not been in touch via email or returned to game then your character can be interacted with on a superficial basis, i.e. claim boons, perform low level tasks in keeping with their office/position. (No new plots can be started with the NPC during this time)

After a 6 month period: If you have not interacted with the game via orders or attending court night, your PC will become an NPC and the STs will run the character only as much necessary to close relevant plots and then the PC will be permanently retired from the game.

Exiting characters:

These characters will be held frozen for 3 months to allow the player time to change their mind. This will be 3 months from the point of submitting closing orders, or your last submitted orders depending on if you choose to send in closing orders. (No new plots can be started with the NPC during this time)

After this time, the PC will be permanently retired from game.

All others:

Players who have not been in touch with STs to take a break will be notified via email once the 3 month period of non interaction has elapsed. Their PC will become an NPC for the next 3 months to allow others closure and if the player wishes to avoid this then they must interact with the game via orders or attending court night. (No new plots can be started with the NPC during this time)

This can be waived at the Storytellers discretion but should rarely be done so (in case of major health issues, major life events for dedicated community members).

Once the next 3 month period of non interaction has elapsed, the PC will be permanently retired from game. No

All retired characters will have their character sheet downloaded and added to the ST Drive archive before deletion from the website. As there is quite a backlog, this will take place when the ST has time to do so, so it is suggested that you download your sheet at the time of leaving the game if you do not want to reach out to the STs in future.

Game Quality

While Vampire the masquerade is a game of extreme themes and ideas as a game, we have voted to exclude all active themes of rape from our game. This includes in character chats, linears, in orders and at the game night itself.

There is no scenario which should break this rule and if a player, Storyteller or other member of the community crosses this line please do not hesitate to speak to the Admin, a Player Liaison or to raise this issue to the community as a whole.

We also currently have a policy to exclude themes of child abuse. While there has not been a vote on this, enough players have marked this as red on their consent forms that these themes will not be included or run by the storytellers and players are asked to actively seek out the other players consent before broaching this topic.