Allies/Contacts

Removed, and replaced by the various Influences options. Note that while other backgrounds only cost 1 freebie point per level during character creation, Influences cost 3 freebie points per level.

Fame

Largely as per the Vampire: the Masquerade rulebook – this effect of this is largely social.

Generation

As per the Vampire: the Masquerade rulebook. However, please the restrictions placed on this background in the Character Generation section.

Herd

Your available blood in any given time in session is calculated as D4+3, plus your character’s levels in the Generation and Herd background. The refs may adjust this level up or down by a point or two if you are judged to have had a particularly active downtime that requires either greater than usual blood expenditure, or would leave less time to hunt, or if you’ve hard a particularly quiet downtime. Regardless, while most characters are likely to turn up reasonably well fed, characters without this background are unlikely to ever be fully-fed.

Influences

The single “Influence: background has been removed, and replaced with a variety of more specific options, which operate markedly differently, and are one of the cornerstones of downtime. Please see the Influences and Downtimes sections for more information.

Mentor

Characters with a Mentor may ask them to assist with one of their Influences in each downtime – the downtime system will automatically roll your rating in this background, against difficulty 7, and successes will be added to your character’s rating in your chosen influence. Over use of this background may result in the temporary, or even permanent loss of levels.

For characters with access to Necromancy or Thaumaturgy, Mentors can also provide the ongoing training that these disciplines require. They can train a character up to their rating in one primary path, one less in a secondary, and two less in one tertiary path. The Mentor’s paths are assumed to be the same as the characters, unless otherwise specified at character creation.

Resources

The background works largely as advertised – this covers your general standard of living and disposable income, whether from an actual job (a little unlikely, given that Vampires can hardly hold down a regular 9-5), investments, or however your character acquires cash. In the interests of bringing the background in line with the British economy, and the decade’s worth of inflation that have occurred since the game was published, here’s approximately what each level represents in Interregnum.

• Subsistance living/student lifestyle. Place of residence: a one bedroom flat in a crappy area, 250 quid a month disposable income after bills etc.
• Personal comfort/normal gainful employment. Residence: 2 bedroom flat in a decent area. 500 quid a month disposable income.
• Successful wealthy professional – Mid range lawyer/doctor/etc. Residence: 4 bedroom detatched house in a good area. 1500 quid a month disposable income.
• Even if you never worked again, this would be very comfortable. Residence: A slightly larger house somewhere very nice, plus a second home somewhere decent. 5000 pounds a month disposable income.
• Even if your descendants were to do nothing but shove their inheritance up their nose from cradle to grave, it would last a generation or two. Stupid wealth. Several very nice homes around the world, 25,000 a month disposable income.

Please note that this wealth is not a substitue for the Finance background, or vice-versa. While the higher levels of this background would make it possible for someone to buy businesses, if they are bought with personal wealth, then they require time and effort in downtimes to run, or to find someone to else to run. If they are bought with the Finance background, then it is assumed they are being run by contacts and allies according to the characters wishes. The Finance Influence is the ability to use wealth (possibly even other people’s) effortlessly and without personal risk. Resources is merely a measure of personal cash on hand. While either one can make it easier to acquire the other, it’s perfectly possible to have high levels of one, and low levels of the other.

Retainers

Each level in this background adds another week to your characters available time in a given downtime month. For more information, please see the Downtimes section.

Sect/Clan Status

Characters with sufficiently high ratings in these backgrounds can attempt to use them to get assistance from appropriate NPCs in their downtimes. Like the Mentor background, overuse of these may result in temporary or permanent loss of status.

• Using Influence – Using your contacts you make things happen in the world
• Personal Actions – What your character actually does personally during the four week period
• Learn and Improve – You can spend experience points (XP) to improve you abilities, sometimes this will also take up some of your four week time from Personal Actions.

Don’t worry if you’re new to all this, we are always happy to go through any rules with you and explain exactly how it works, email us, or grab us before a game.

Influences

Your character knows people who can get things done in a particular field, called an Influence. The higher your level of influence the more you can accomplish. Unless you are actively prevented from contacting anyone in a given downtime, presumably by a third party, then you can use your influences – they represent people you know who owe your favours, or that you have blackmail material on, or something else. Regardless, if your character can reasonably be assumed to be able to speak on the phone, you may use your influences – it does not take any appreciable amount of time out of your month. You can find out more about exactly what you can do with your influences here.

Personal Actions

These are activities your character undertakes personally such as meetings, following people etc. You can only undertake one “action” per week. Night-to-night things like personal grooming, basic feeding, shopping, paying the bills and so on don’t count as actions – you can assume a certain amount of normal spare time, just like real life.

Some actions will take longer than a week. If you run out of weeks, perhaps because the refs think that the first action you’ve noted down would take two or three weeks, then later actions will not happen: if you are unsure how long something might take, then, please ask us. We won’t always tell you, as your character may not be reasonably expected to know how long some activities might take. In game, as in life, you have to prioritise your activities.

Usually you will get four weeks in a downtime. However, some factors can increase or decrease this time.

For every dot in the Retainer background you gain a “task” which functions more or less like an extra week in your month as your ghoul does things for you.  As with your own weeks, if the first task in your downtime is judged to be long or complex, other tasks more moved down, and may not get accomplished.  This applies even if you have multiple ghouls – if you set one to doing a 2 week task, then another may be required to help, or simply become distracted or jealous when you focus your attention on the first ghoul’s efforts.  (This is not entirely realistic, we admit, but we feel it is a situation where game balance it required ahead of realism.)

Obviously, there are certain tasks they cannot accomplish such as study for you, and they may be more likely to get hurt or caught doing particularly risky actions. Still, they are an extra pair of competent and loyal hands.

For each dot of Path/Humaity rating below 6, you lose a week. So a rating 5 character only has 3 weeks per month, a rating 4 character 2 weeks, and so on. This represents your character’s increasing descent into insanity as they fall to the Beast. This means that low humanity characters find it harder to, and in extreme cases cannot, improve or learn new skills, but low rating characters are allowed to spend time to increase their Path/Humanity rating, even if they have no weeks available – see below.

Don’t worry, you’re not going to have to keep track of all this yourself. Our downtime system will do it for you.

Spending XP

Learning new skills and powers has a time cost as well as an XP cost. XP costs are listed here.

• Influences: One week for levels 1-4, and 2 weeks for level 5.
• Attributes or Abilities: Number of weeks equal to the new rating you will have. This training can be split up over several downtimes, and the weeks do not have to be consecutive, but your XP is spent straight away and you only get the rating once the training is done.
• Increasing a Disciple, Virtue or Path of Enlightenment rating: Twice your new rating in weeks without interruption – the weeks spent on this must be consecutive. If you are interrupted, then you lose half the weeks you have accumulated to that point. You can attend court, use your influences and live a low-key life, but nothing else. It is, however, possible for you to raise your humanity/path even though at very low levels of those there would be no free weeks in your month – to go from rating 1 to 2 takes 2 full months of downtime, and rating 2 to 3 takes a further month. (Plus, obviously, the requisite XP.)
• Thaumaturgical or Necromantic Path rank: One and half times the new rating in weeks, rounding up. As above, this time must be consecutive and cannot be interrupted.
• New Thaumaturgic or Necromantic Ritual: A number of uninterrupted weeks equal to the level of the ritual.
• Willpower: One week per level of new rating. Again, this time must be consecutive and cannot be interrupted.
• Increasing a background takes a variable amount of time, depending on the background and level, and your character’s personal circumstances – ask us.

We will attempt to be generous when considering how outside events interrupt you learning new skills. Minor upheavals will make no difference. Major upheavals include: serious injury, specific action by another player with the intent to disrupt you, torpor or the destruction of your haven.