The Embrace has a tendency to strip a newborn Kindred of all ties to life and humanity. All of their normal human drives and desires become twisted into a raging emotional force, called the Beast, that demands survival at all costs, permanently separating them from the rest of mankind. Kindred have developed many philosophical codes that enable them to deal this Beast, and these are known as Morality Paths. By following these Morality Paths, characters are able to keep the Beast at bay, and function with some semblance of normality.

There are many various Morality Paths, but all characters "default" to the Path of Humanity (usually referred to as just "Humanity") at creation. Additionally, 99.9% of all Kindred within the Camarilla follow Humanity, so that is the only Morality Path we are dealing with in this game. The ethics of Humanity espouse what usually constitues humane behavior, warning against things such as theft, murder, harming others or behaving selfishly. Humanity is described in further depth in Laws of the Night - Revised.

Just so you know, any Morality Path that is not Humanity is referred to as a "Path of Enlightenment." Again, since 99.9% of all Kindred within the Camarilla follow Humanity, that is the only Morality Path we are dealing with in this game.

When pressed by overwhelming stresses or destructive forces, Kindred may lose themselves in the Beast, their predatory insticts. Virtues are what Kindred have that enable them to resist the Beast, allowing them to maintain the semblance of Humanity and not endanger the Masquerade. There are three categories of virtues, and each is used differently. All characters start of with a single free trait in Conscience, Self-Control and Courage automatically. Then, you have seven points to distribute between these three Virtues. Each Virture has a minimum rating of one and a maximum rating of five. The three Virtues are Conscience, Self-Control and Courage.

• Conscience:

• Self-Control:

• Courage:

A character's Morality Rating is a measure of their distance from the Beast, and the firmness to which they stick to their Morality Path. It is expressed by Morality Traits, and it is rated from zero to five. This rating serves as an indicator of a character's ethical strength. A character with Rating of 5 Traits has a highly developed moral compass that keeps the Beast at bay almost all of time, while a character with a Rating of 1 is about to fall into the Beast's clutches, permanently.

A character's Morality Rating is equal to the average of your character's Conscience and Self-Control ratings, rounded up. A character's total Morality Traits do affect their condition; a Kindred close to falling to the Beast (i.e., zero Morality Traits) is more likely to succumb to torpor or other Kindred-specific problems.

It should be noted that characters can lose Morality Traits by suffering a lapse of Conscience and falling into Frenzy. You can only gain Morality Traits (after character creation) through good roleplaying.

A character's Morality Rating also determines a few things. A small listing of those things follows:

• When a character slumbers during the day, their Morality Rating determines how deeply they slumber. A character can never bid more traits than triple their Morality Rating for any action during the day. Even a mighty Elder can be brought down by mortals during the day....
• Kindred with low Humanity (or those who are on other Morality Paths altogether) appear more corpselike and pallid than those Kindred with high Humanity. As a result, they have trouble interacting with regular human beings. Technically, any character with a Humanity Rating below four suffers a one-Trait penalty on all Social Challenges with Kine (except for Intimidation challenges). Characters on a Morality Path other than Humanity automatically suffer the maximum penalty (i.e., three-Trait penalty) on Social Challenges. This penalty does not apply to Social interactions with other supernatural beings, just regular mundane mortals.
• When a character finally loses all Morality Traits, they fall into the Wassail, an unescapeable Frenzy in which the Beast permanently overrides the last sparks of Humanity left in a Kindred. At this point, the character is no longer playable and will be "retired" as soon as possible.

Willpower measures the strength of your character's resolve and sense of self. By sheer force of will, your character can withstand otherwise untenable conditions, renew committment to a course of action, and power certain Disciplines. Your character's starting Willpower is equal to their Courage rating. Your character's maximum Willpower is based on your character's generation, as indicated by the Generation Chart.

Because no two Kindred are the same, players are given five Free Traits to spend on any area of character development desired. For instance, if you want your character to be more socially adept than the average character, you can use Free Traits to increase the number of Social Traits they have, or possible increase their Social-related Abilities. A complete listing of how you can spend Free Traits is listed in the Free Traits Chart, below.

A player can, if they want, gain more than five Free Traits, by selecting Negative Traits and Flaws. They can also take a single Derangement (or a second Derangement, in the case of Malkavians). Finally, a character can gain free Traits by "sacrificing" one of your Morality Traits.

A player receives a single Free Trait for each Negative Traits taken. Please note that you can only take up to five Negative Traits. A player receives two Free Traits for taking a Derangement. A player receives two Free Traits for sacrificing a Morality Trait (but this can be done only once). Finally, a player receives a variable number of Free Traits for selecting a Flaw; each Flaw mentions how many Free Traits they grant. A character can only take up to seven Traits worth of Flaws. Flaws (and Merits) are listed in Laws of the Night - Revised, Laws of the Night: Camarilla Guide and Laws of the Night: Sabbat Guide. Not all of the Flaws and Merits are permitted; please realize that the GMs might ask you to strike a Flaw or Merit from your character. ). Also, realize that taking certain flaws might cause you to end up wearing a ribbon decorated with Cute Fuzzy Bunnies during the course of the game.

Some characters have weaknesses, particular shortcomings, suffered injuries that set them back or just never quite developed in some way. Such hindrances are represented with Negative Traits. You may select up to five Negative Traits, gaining a single Free Trait for each one taken. You cannot take more than three Negative Traits in any one Trait Category. A good thesaurus or dictionary will help you figure out what each Trait is good for. Please note that there are some additional Negative Traits listed in Laws of the Night: Sabbat Guide; those Traits are not allowed.

• Negative Physical Traits:
• Clumsy, Cowardly, Decrepit, Delicate, Docile, Flabby, Lame, Lethargic, Puny, Sickly
• Negative Social Traits:
• Bestial, Callous, Condescending, Dull, Feral, Naïve, Obnoxious, Repugnant, Shy, Tactless, Untrustworthy
• Negative Mental Traits:
• Forgetful, Gullible, Ignorant, Impatient, Oblivious, Predictable, Shortsighted, Submissive, Violent, Witless

Mental instability and insanity plague many Kindred, who are gripped by their guilt, remorse and inability to deal with the changing world. Derangements represent specific mental problems that often crop up in times of stress. Please realize that Derangements are not funny or things to be taken lightly. There is nothing humorous or lighthearted about insanity and mental dysfunction.

Players (aside of those who play Malkavians) may take a Derangement in order to gain two Free Traits. Malkavians must take one Derangement as a part of character creation; they gain no Free Traits for it. They may, however, take a second Derangement in order to gain Free Traits.

What follows is a brief listing of Derangements that players may take. There are additional Derangements listed in Laws of the Night: Sabbat Guide; players may not select those Derangements. Please read the Laws of the Night - Revised for more information about these Derangements as they all have very specific game effects when activated.

The List of Derangements....

• Bulimia
• Crimson Rage
• Fugue
• Hysteria
• Immortal Terror
• Manic-Depression
• Megalomania
• Multiple Personalities
• Obsessive/Compulsive
• Paranoia
• Regression
• Sanguinary Animism
• Schizophrenia

Now that we've told you how to get Free Traits, how can you spend these Free Traits?