First, a quick word about Abilities in general, okay? In most cases, not having an Ability appropriate to the situation doesn't mean you're helpless. For instance, anybody can fire a gun, drive an automatic or throw a punch. They just might not be able to do it well, that's all. Having an Ability means you can call for retests if you fail in an action. Say you tried to use a computer, but didn't have the Computer Ability. You don't automatically fail -- it's just that you aren't going to be good at it, and you aren't going to be hacking into NORAD. If you tried to fire a gun without having the Firearms Ability, you could still do it -- maybe even hit -- but you aren't going to be making any trick shots.

New Abilities and Clarifications of Old Abilities:

We have added two new Abilities for this game: Archery and Diplomacy.

Archery is just like Firearms in use. Possessing it allows you to use Mental Traits when using a bow and arrow. However, please be aware attempting to stake someone by shooting an arrow into their heart is harder to do than merely wielding a stake as a weapon in close-quarters combat with them. When attempting to stake someone with an arrow, the attacker must win both staking tests in order to paralyze their opponent (as opposed to "normal" staking, in which you must win or tie both tests). It's that simple.

Diplomacy, however, is a different kettle of fish; while it is very similar to the Etiquette Ability in that it governs group interactions and dynamics, it is different enough (in our opinion) to warrant a formal definition (as other abilities from the books):

Linguistics

As mentioned in the Character Creation section, we are handling Linguistics differently in this game. Instead of having each Linguistics Ability correspond to a single language (i.e., someone with Linguistics x5 knows only five languages), we are using an exponential scale for languages. After all, there are people in the real world who know more than five languages (like some UN translators), and they certainly aren't Kindred elders. See the chart below for details:

So, an American with Linguistics x5 could, in addition to knowing English, could theoretically know Afrikaans, Dutch, Farsi, French, German, Greek, Hindi, Italian, Latin, Mandarin, Portuguese, Russian, Scottish Gaelic, Spanish, Urdia and Yiddish. After all, there are currently over 100 major languages spoken in the modern world -- why should you only be limited to speaking six of them at most?

Finally, there is some confusion about the Occult and Awareness Abilities, due to some poorly-worded text in Laws of the Night: Revised. Rather than get into the whole deal, let's just cut to the chase: You can use Awareness to sense if something is "wrong" (i.e., if a Discipline is being used, magic is in the area, etcetera), and you can use Occult to see exactly what is "wrong."

As we mentioned in the Character Creation section, we are handling Lores very differently in for this game. Why are we doing this, you might ask? Well, it comes down to out-of-character knowledge. Let's face it, we, the players, have read the White Wolf books -- we know lots of the things about the Sabbat, the Camarilla and the Garou our characters might not. We, as players, might know that the Week of Nightmares was caused by Ravnos "waking up" and eventually getting a Technocratic nuclear bomb dropped on him while he was fighting three powerful Kuei-Jin in Pakistan, and that the psychic fallout from that woke Malkav up (thus spreading Dementation to the Malkavian Clan) or made Tremere himself lose his centuries-old fight with Saulot for who controlled the body they were in -- but our characters really shouldn't have a single clue about any of that, you know?

Of course, that's an extreme example, but we've all seen it during play (or have done it ourselves) -- there comes that moment, when suddenly a character "just knows" something about the Garou, despite having never met one during the course of that character's life. Or another player has their character "remember" an old story about the Nictuku, despite White Wolf stated that those feared Nosferatu are almost never ever talked about.

Well, the Storytellers in this game have decided to be very strict about this. To that end, we are proposing a simple thing -- if your character doesn't have an appropriate Lore, your character doesn't know things. For example, if your character does not have Camarilla Lore, they only know the rudimentary basics of the Camarilla (the Prince rules a city, there are things called Primogen that rule Clans, don't piss them off) and not much else (e.g., Archons and Justicars are complete unknowns to them, they know next to nothing about Prestation or the various Status "games" the Camarilla plays and so on). Or a character without any Garou Lore might not even know that werewolves prefer to be called Garou, and the thought that there were other, non-wolf shapeshifters would be beyond them. Or a character without Sabbat Lore would only know that there's another Sect of Kindred called the Sabbat that are opposed to the Camarilla, but not really know anything about them. And so on.

Yes, the Storytellers know this is harsh, but at the same time -- it makes sense. Not every character knows everything about the World of Darkness; there are vast areas of knowledge that are esoteric and unknown to the common Kindred. (That's also another area where Elders have an advantage over younger Kindred; they've been around longer and know more things.) Of course, this is also one of the reasons why we're giving people some free Lores to start the game with; after all, people who've been around for 50 years or so undoubtedly have learned something, right?

Acceptable Lores to begin the game with are things like Cainite Lore (knowledge about Kindred themselves, the Clans and Bloodlines that are out there), Camarilla/Sabbat/Anarch Lore (the inner workings, background and history of the Camarilla/Sabbat/Anarchs), Discipline Lore (the knowledge about how certain Disciplines work, what Clans might have what Disciplines, hints at Combination Disciplines) or various Clan Lores (the history and inner workings of the various Clans, including your own). There are, of course, other Lores out there, such as Wraith Lore or Garou Lore or Changeling Lore or even more specialized Lores that focus on smaller groups within larger categories (such as Black Hand Lore, Hierarchy Lore, Syndicate Lore and so on), but those usually aren't the sort of thing your average beginning Kindred knows about, unless there are extenuating circumstances.

What you should realize, folks, is that these Lores and our limits on them are best used as role-playing notes. Lores are essentially "true" or "real" knowledge about something -- someone with Garou Lore knows the truth about werewolves (that there are Tribes, Auspices, Breeds and so on) while someone without that Lore really only knows the common myths and legends about werewolves (they only change forms when the moon is full, saying your prayers and being pure of heart can prevent the transformation, if you're bitten by a werewolf you become one and so on). We think it's much more fun to learn from your mistakes and adapt what you know or even ask a Storyteller if your limited Lores would help you know something (e.g., "I have Garou Lore x2 -- do I know what he's talking about when talks about the Urge Wyrm trying to take over Pangaea?") instead of whipping out the rulebooks and quoting what White Wolf wrote down (and contradicted ten times over in other books). In the end, we think this will make for a better story -- slowly learning things -- and will ultimately be more rewarding than "just knowing" things.

There are basically thirteen changes and/or clarifications with regards to Disciplines that we need to inform you of. Unless otherwise noted here, Disciplines work as listed in Laws of the Night: Revised, complete with all the foibles and failings presented there.

Change #1: There is what we are calling a "Generation Shift" when it comes to gaining Disciplines beyond Advanced. According to the Laws of the Night: Camarilla Guide (and the Sabbat Guide), a character can gain "Elder" level Disciplines at 8th Generation, "Master" level Disciplines at 7th Generation, "Ascendant" level Disciplines at 6th, and "Methuselah" level Disciplines at 5th Generation. In tabletop, characters can learn these powers starting at 7th Generation, not 8th. We are going with the tabletop version of Disciplines. Therefore, the Generation at which characters can learn Disciplines beyond Advanced moves down by one, accordingly. That means that you can learn Elder Disciplines at 7th Generation, Master Disciplines at 6th, and so on.

Change #2: The Dominate power of Possession still works on Kindred and other supernatural beings. For some reason, White Wolf decided that while all other Dominate powers work on all creatures (Mortals, Kindred, Ghouls, Werewolves, Mages, et cetera), Possession would only work on Mortals, stating that with supernatural beings, "their wills are too strong to be completely overcome." Well, we disagree with this decision.

Therefore, in our games, Kindred may still attempt to use Possession on other supernatural beings. Of course, they might not always win the Challenge, but they can try. A character possessing another being still needs to spend Mental Traits to use other Disciplines while in the other's body; see page 148 of Laws of the Night: Revised for more details.

Change #3: The Obfuscate power of Vanish from the Mind's Eye allows Kindred to talk to others while still remaining "invisible." However, in order to do so, a character must engage in a mass Mental Challenge against everyone who might possibly be in the room and hear them speak. Anyone who wins the mass Mental Challenge becomes aware of you and sees you normally. Now, in White Wolf's Mind's Eye Theatre Journal #6, Carl Bowen (the Mind's Eye Theatre Line Developer at the time) suggests an alternative way to handle this challenge -- instead of winning a mass Mental Challenge in order to utter a single sentence, a character can expend a single Mental Trait to speak a full sentence and remain hidden. We like this change, and we are using it.

Therefore, if a character who is currently Obfuscated (and is using Vanish from the Mind's Eye or a higher-level power), wishes to speak a single simple sentence and remain hidden, they can expend a Mental Trait and not have to perform any challenges to remain hidden. A hidden character cannot remain invisible if they wish to speak more than a single simple sentence, and, as always, attempting to interact with the environment (running, attacking, exerting Presence powers, holding conversations, screaming, moving through beaded curtains, etc.) renders a person visible to all, regardless of how many Mental Traits they are willing to spend.

Change #4: The Obfuscate power of Mask of a Thousand Faces allows a Kindred to twist another person's perceptions, causing others to not see the Kindred's appearance. Normally, this power is used to make a person appear bland and unremarkable; however a character can expend a single Mental Trait to assume a specific set of features. As it is written in Laws of the Night: Revised, a character can only change their facial features; they cannot change the appearance of their clothes. We are changing this: by expending a single Mental Trait, a character with Mask of a Thousand Faces can alter their clothing. These alterations can be performed individually or together (i.e., a person could spend one Mental Trait to change their facial features or their clothing, or they could spend two Mental Traits to change both their face and outfit). So, to give an example, a character with Mask could spend a single Mental Trait to change their outfit into a police uniform without creating a specific set of features, appearing as a random "generic cop," or they could spend two Mental Traits to appear as a specific police officer.

It should also be noted that you can use Mask of a Thousand Faces to masquerade as a person who has more Social Traits than your character by expending Blood Traits (at the time of generating the Mask) in order to match their Social Traits. If you do not expend these Blood Traits to match your intended target's total Social Traits, your appearance and mannerisms do not convey the other person's countenance properly. Using Mask of a Thousand Faces does not actually grant Social Traits for use in Challenges; it just merely causes you to look like someone of more social acumen. You still use your character's normal Social Traits when using that Mask. Additionally, you character is still limited by their generational limits on Trait Maximums and Blood expenditure while doing this; you may not use Mask to appear to have more Social Traits than your generation would allow, and it can take several turns in order to reach that maximum.

Finally, it should be noted that, even if a character spends a Mental Trait to look like a particular person and spends Blood Traits to match that person's total Social Traits, the Storytellers might ask for a Static Mental Challenge to see if the impersonator successfully carries off the deception. Performance is the most applicable Ability for retests in this situation, but Expression and Subterfuge will be permissible as well.

Change #5: The Potence power of Might can sometimes be problematic when it's used. No two games seem to agree on what happens after Might is used -- can Might retests be cancelled, like Ability Retests? Can someone use Might to call for a retest after their opponent uses Might? What, exactly can be done? Well, according to Laws of the Night: Revised, once Might is invoked, "it is the last test of the challenge; no further retests are allowed." (This is on page 166, in case you're curious and want to look it up yourself.) A strict interpretation of this would imply that using Might effectively ends a challenge -- Might is invoked, a retest is done, and everyone has to abide by the results of that retest; there are no more retests. While we agree with this strict interpretation of Might, we are making one small change. Characters possessing the Potence power of Intensity can invoke it in order to cancel Might retests. If Intensity is used in this fashion, it cancels the Might retest and ends the challenge. This use of Intensity can only be canceled by significantly more powerful levels of Potence. We hope this is clear.

Change #6: When using Puissance, the Advanced level of Potence and wielding a melee weapon, your weapon will automatically break, unless it is specially reinforced against your character's massive strength. If you possess Vigor, there is a chance your character's melee weapon might break when used -- if you lose on a Simple Test after using the weapon, it shatters. (Reinforced weapons, again, are immune to this.) Additionally, if you possess Vigor (and higher levels of Potence), you can ignore any item's Negative Trait of Heavy.

Clarification #1: In the changeover from Second Edition to the Revised Edition of Laws of the Night, White Wolf decided to modify the Auspex power of Aura Perception to allow people using it to sense ghosts and astral forms (i.e., people using the Auspex power of Psychic Projection), if they suspect the presence of ghosts of Psychically Projecting people in the area. We have no problems with this, but we just want to point out that this merely allows people to get a sense that there might be ghosts or astral forms around an area -- it does not allow people to identify these ghosts or astral forms or interact with them in any meaningful way. A person would still need to be able to talk to ghosts normally (perhaps by having the Medium Merit or using certain Thamaturgical Paths) or somehow visit the Astral Plane to interact with beings there.

Clarification #2: Speaking of Aura Perception, we want to point out that it has been abused in games that we're run (and played in) the past. Specifically, the "truth-sensing" aspect of this power is what's been abused. Rather than restrict or disallow this power, we're going to explain a few things about it. First of all, the use of Aura Perception is obvious -- you must "stare at the subject with intense concentration" (Laws of the Night: Revised, page 137). Secondly, if you do win the challenge (and remember, the subject cannot relent or retest, as this is a static challenge), you can only ask a limited number of questions. Specifically, you can only inquire into the subject's current emotional state, if they are under the affects of any sort of magic (including Possession), if the subject has committed Diablerie within the past six months, what sort of creature (i.e., human, ghoul, werewolf, et cetera) the subject is, or if the last thing the character said was a lie (this is all on page 138 of Laws of the Night: Revised, by the way).

Now, let's be blunt: there are many ways to abuse "was the last thing you said a lie?" Remember, however, that truth is subjective -- if the character believes he spoke the truth, even if the players all know differently, the character told the truth. Also, realize that this only applies to the last statement a character spoke -- not the totality of their comments (e.g., if a character finishes a long speech with "And that's the whole truth," and someone uses Aura Perception, they will only discover if the phrase "and that's the whole truth" is true or not -- they will not discover exactly what was true, and what was lie, but they could go back and now question the speaker in more detail; theoretically, they could also interrupt the speaker several times, or run the Aura Perception challenge with a Storyteller so as not to interrupt a long speech). Rather than going on and on about ways to render Aura Perception's truth-detection useless (or ways to ensure its perfect functioning), let's just sum it up this way: we are allowing players to use Aura Perception to determine the validity of statements, but realize that there are many ways to "get around" this, so it's almost worthless; don't rely on it. If you still have questions about this, talk to the storytellers, okay? (Of course, you can always use the Empathy Ability to see if people are telling the truth as well, but this is subject to the same notes as above, you see....)

Change #7: Continuing with our theme of talking about Aura Perception, we'd like to point out that if someone commits Diablerie, the "black lines" that indicate this stay in their Aura for six months (not three as mentioned in Laws of the Night: Revised). Of course, Thaumaturgy can always detect Diablerie no matter how long ago it was committed. Also, just as a reminder, committing Diablerie automatically makes a character lose a Morality Trait, regardless of whether they are on Humanity or a Path of Enlightenment (except with Path of Caine, as that path encourages Diablerie).

Clarification #3: Since we're still talking about Auspex, we just wanted to clarify that a person can use Auspex to see people who are hiding with Obfuscate or to pierce the illusions created by Chimerstry. For each "power class" difference between the Kindred using Auspex and the Kindred using Obfuscate or Chimerstry, there is a one-for-one Trait modifier to the appropriate challenge. So, if a Kindred with Advanced Auspex is searching for a Kindred with Basic Obfuscate, the searching Kindred gains two additional traits (there are two power class differences between Basic and Advanced, so there are two bonus traits) for purposes of ties resolution and overbidding. When using Auspex or Obfuscate, we ask that you hold up fingers to indicate your power class level (One for Basic, Two for Intermediate, Three for Advanced, Four for Elder, and so on) so that others can calculate the difference in power levels between you and them, and therefore can calculate the trait bonuses accordingly.

Clarification #4: The Presence power of Summon has been abused in games that we've run in the past. Therefore, we want to clearly define who can be "summoned." When using Summon, please remember that your character can only Summon someone that your character knows. At bare minimum, this is defined as "someone that you have had the chance to talk to for a few minutes, or someone who has been the target of your Presence powers before" (Laws of the Night: Revised, page 168). If you attempt to Summon a false identity (for instance, an identity that was created with Mask of a Thousand Faces), you will still Summon the appropriate individual (although you might not realize it, as they do not need to come to you as that identity). If this false identity has been used by more than one person, you will bring the closest user of that identity (i.e., the first person the Storytellers can find who used that face) to you. Further Summons will bring the others who have used that identity.

Realize that a Summons compulsion lasts until the victim arrives at the location they were Summoned from and makes him or herself known to the Summoner (so, presumably, the victim must be physically present, not Obfuscated, and must alert the Summoner to their presence), or until daybreak. Also, a person who has been Summoned will take steps to get to the Summoner in a reasonable amount of time, and try to avoid complications (such as locked doors or overprotective allies) that might hinder them. Finally, if the only way to reach the Summoner would potentially kill the victim (such as walking through a wall of flame or an explosion), the Summons compulsion will dissipate. However, if there is no immediate threat to the victim of the Summons, the victim will go, even if they can assume that the location they are going to is dangerous. They can, additionally, bring allies with them along the journey, but will avoid those allies if they attempt to prevent the journey (e.g., if a Summoned person's friend pulls out a gun and attempts to shoot them to prevent them from going, the Summoned person would attempt to get away from their friend and continue on the journey to the Summoner).

Clarification #5: Certain Discipline powers (Rapidity and Vigor, for instance) allow people to use an additional hand signal known as "The Bomb" in specific challenges. If you can use the Bomb, you must inform your opponent during the challenge, before the game of Rock, Paper, Scissors used to resolve the challenge. If you do not inform your opponent that you can use the Bomb, you cannot use it during that particular challenge -- although, if your opponent is willing, you can always ask for a "do over," but don't always expect it.

Clarification #6: The Discipline of Dominate does not work on Kindred of lower Generation that the person attempting the Domination, which means at some point during a challenge, people's Generations need to be revealed. However, instead of having the defender, the person resisting the Dominate reveal their Generation, it is the Challenge, the person attempting to Dominate another person who must reveal their Generation (e.g. "I'm Ninth Generation -- does my Dominate affect you?") If players do not with to publicly reveal their Generation, they can always ask for a Storyteller to adjudicate the challenge and ascertain if the Dominate works.

Almost every single LARP in existence handles Status differently. Some games ignore it utterly, relying on role-playing instead, while other games run Status verbatim from Laws of the Night: Revised. In this game, we're going to stick closely to the rules presented in the book (on pages 216 through 220), including the whole "Permanent/Temporary" Status thing, but we are making a few small changes. Most notably, we're adding a new Status Trait to indicate that a character is a formal member of the Camarilla.

See, according to Laws of the Night: Revised, Kindred who have been "officially 'accepted' by the Prince" gain the Status Trait of Acknowledged. This means that they are allowed to reside within the Prince's city, provided they follow the Prince's rules. There has been some confusion in the past as to whether or not Acknowledged also meant that a Kindred was an official member of the Camarilla. Part of this confusion stems from earlier editions of White Wolf's LARP rules; in some editions Acknowledged meant that a Kindred was a formal member of the Camarilla, and there was no specific Status Trait that indicated that they were allowed to reside in a city.

In this game, we are creating the Status Trait of Accepted. A character possessing the Status Trait of Accepted has been formally recognized as a member of the Camarilla. Presumably, they have been released by their Sire, and have met with the approval of a Prince (or Seneschal or possibly a higher position, such as Archon or Justicar or even one of the seven Councilors of the Camarilla). Usually, only Princes can grant the Status Trait of Accepted, although there have been situations in which members of the Camarilla higher than Princes (such as the aforementioned Archons or Justicars) have Accepted Kindred into the Camarilla. It is assumed that all characters in the game (with the exception of Caitiff or Anarchs) start off with this Status Trait. Caitiff can purchase this Status Trait as a Background; of course, they are not required to do so, but we recommend it -- being a member of the Camarilla, while in a Camarilla-controlled city, does have a tendency to make your character's life easier in the long run, unless you hang out only with the Anarchs. Gangrel, on the other hand, were once part of the Camarilla; therefore it's up to the individual player of a Gangrel character to decide whether or not their character stayed in the sect when Xavier pulled the Clan out in 1998 (and therefore retains the Status of Accepted). A Gangrel is considered to be independent otherwise.

This can create some very interesting situations. A Prince could, for instance, Acknowledge someone who is not an Accepted member of the Camarilla. For example, suppose a pair of Giovanni wish to reside within a city. The Prince of that City could grant those Giovanni the Status Trait of Acknowledged, which would allow them to reside in the city, subject to the Prince's limits. However, since those Giovanni were not Accepted, they are not members of the Camarilla, and cannot claim Justice under the Rule of the Camarilla. (Of course, this also means that these Giovanni are not bound by the Laws of the Camarilla -- they are only bound by the Prince's laws.) Similarly, a person's childe could be Acknowledged, but not Accepted as a full member of the Camarilla. Conversely, someone could be an Accepted member of the Camarilla, but not be Acknowledged in a particular city. In that case, if an Unacknowledged but Accepted Kindred is found in the city by the Sheriff (or Scourge, or Primogen, or so on), they are usually dragged to the Prince immediately so that people can find out "what the hell is going on."

Additionally, we are changing some of the rules concern just who exactly can grant and remove Status. Only certain people can grant or remove Status during the course of a game; we are not allowing people of "High Status" to grant and remove Status, we are only allowing specific offices within a city to manipulate Status. (However, people of "High Status" usually end up being in these offices, so that's okay -- failing that, they can always petition those offices to grant or remove Status accordingly....)

The Prince: The Prince can grant or remove a Permanent Status Trait from someone at the cost of one Temporary Status Trait. They can grant or remove up to three Status Traits to a single person in a single session this way; if they wish to grant or remove more from someone, the fourth and subsequent Status Traits cost Permanent Status, not Temporary. A Prince can also grant and remove the Status Traits of Accepted and Acknowledged at no cost.

The Seneschal: The Seneschal has all the Status-manipulation powers of the Prince, but only in the Prince's absence. Additionally, a Prince may increase or diminish the Seneschal's powers at their own whim.

The Primogen: The Primogen of a Clan may grant or remove Status to members of their clans at the cost of one Temporary Status Trait per Permanent Status Trait granted or removed. Additionally, if all the Primogen band together to do so, they may remove Status from the Prince (or Seneschal) by expending a group total of Permanent Status Traits equal to the Prince's (or Seneschal's) total Permanent Status.

The Whips: The Whips of a Clan have all the Status-manipulating powers of the Primogen, provided the Primogen does not limit or revoke their powers (similar to the Prince/Seneschal situation).

The Greater Harpy: The main (or Greater) Harpy of a City may remove one Status Trait from any Kindred who has caused a scandal or backed out of a boon. There is no cost to remove Status in this case, but evidence must be provided to verify the scandal. The "Greater" Harpy can also sponsor Lesser Harpies, who can remove Temporary Status Traits from scandalous Kindred.

The Keeper of Elysium: The Keeper of Elysium can remove one Status Trait from any Kindred who breaks the Masquerade or rules concerning behavior in Elysium. If the Keeper does not witness the breach themselves, sufficient evidence against someone must be brought forth. There is no cost to remove Status in this case.

The Scourge and The Sheriff: Both the Sheriff and the Scourge may remove one Status Trait, at no cost, from any Kindred who interferes with their duties. Neither office can grant Status. Additionally, the Deputies of the Sheriff or Scourge can remove Temporary Status at no cost.

When a character grants Status to or removes Status from another character, the first character must make a public and declaration (either during a game session or over our email list -- ideally both, actually) explaining exactly why they are granting or removing Status. The reason behind the Status change must be clearly stated (e.g., the Prince is formally Accepting a new Childer, or the Primogen is granting Trustworthy to someone at the request of the Keeper of Elyisum and so on), and can even be debated, if allowed. All Status in the game (including Status bought during character creation) must be accounted for -- a character should know who granted them what Status and why, even if not everyone in the game does.

Why all this fuss? Because, believe it or not, Status is a very important thing, and can be used to manipulate other people among other things. Check out pages 217 and 218 in Laws of the Night: Revised for a very brief rundown on what exactly you can do with Status.

For the most part, we are treating Anarch Reputation the same as how it is presented in Laws of the Night: Anarch Guide (on pages 174 - 182), but since we know that not everyone has that book, we are giving a very brief review of that system here.

The main thing to realize about Anarch Reputation is that is not a "true" system of Status within the Anarch Movement; an Anarch's reputation is not dependent on position, rites or generation -- it is based on deeds alone, as perceived and judged by their comrades. An Anarch can generally have up to eight Reputation Traits total (including Committed), although some areas with higher concentrations of Anarchs could conceivably allow for more Reputation, while cities with fewer Anarchs would be harder to get Reputation in. Since the Anarchs recognize no formal offices as such, the only way to earn Reputation is to become known for a particular deed or accomplishment. While it is possible to lie about one's deeds to get Reputation, doing so is usually an invitation to disaster when the truth is revealed. Anarch Reputation is subject to the whim of the mob, as it were, and can be made or destroyed -- or ignored -- at a moment's notice.

Anarch Reputation can be used in all the same ways as Camarilla Status -- it can be added to Social Challenges, loaned to another person as a favor, it is a rough measure of overall trustworthiness among Anarchs -- with some minor changes. Firstly, Anarchs suffer no real penalty for ignoring another Anarch's Reputation (aside of whatever punishments the Anarch with Reputation can later levy against the person who ignored their standing within the Movement). Secondly, Anarch Reputation cannot be used against Camarilla or Sabbat Kindred (just as Status from those sects cannot be used against Anarchs or each other). Finally, although Anarch Status is a rough indication of overall trustworthiness, Reputation is never the final factor that decides whose word is accepted over another's (as Status is in the Camarilla or Sabbat) -- all Anarchs are supposedly viewed as equals and treated the same.

Gaining or losing Reputation within the Anarchs is done by a vote of known Anarchs (i.e., Anarchs who are Committed). Losing or gaining Temporary Reputation Traits is done by a majority vote of Anarchs at a particular gathering (excluding the Anarch who stands to gain or lose Reputation). This is an informal vote, and can even occur multiple times during a single evening, generating a lot of "buzz" about a particular Anarch by giving him lots of Temporary Reputation (although an Anarch's cannot gain more Temporary Reputation than double their permanent Reputation). Anarchs who routinely receive lots of Temporary Reputation in this way are usually seen as potential leaders and often looked up to as exemplars of the Movement (and are seen as someone who will eventually gain Permanent Reputation at the next big rave). There is no set protocol for the voting on these Temporary Reputation traits -- some Anarch gangs might never have such votes, while some of the more politically-minded Anarch groups might call for these votes constantly. The Anarchs themselves determine when these opinion polls are necessary, really.

Altering an Anarch's Permanent Reputation is a bit more complicated. To initiate any type of Permanent Reputation Change, a full-fledged Anarch gathering must be underway, and a character (aside of the one looking to gain or lose Reputation) must step forward and propose the change in Reputation. Just as an aside, a "full-fledged Anarch gathering" is defined by the city's Anarch's themselves, but it usually requires that most if not all of the city's active Anarchs (i.e., those who are Committed) be present to vote. In any case, once the proposal is put before the city's Anarchs (along with the justifications for why the change in Reputation is needed), the assembled Anarchs vote upon it. Only a simple majority is needed to remove Reputation or grant Negative Reputation, while a two-thirds majority is needed to grant Reputation, as it's easier to lose standing than it is to gain it. If the vote passes, the Reputation is awarded immediately, and cannot be removed until the next full-fledged gathering, barring evidence of fraud involved in the voting or evidence of falsifying the evidence used to convince people about the Reputation change. Only one Permanent Reputation can be granted to or removed from a single Anarch at a gathering.

In addition to the standard Status Traits provided in Laws of the Night: Revised, many of which could apply to Anarchs, there are some Anarch-specific Reputation Traits listed on pages 180 - 182 of Laws of the Night: Anarch Guide. These particular Traits (such as Committed, Hardcore, Marked, Advocate and so on) are only awarded under special circumstances however, so feel free to check them over before taking them.

As mentioned in our Character Generation section, we are allowing players to take any of the Merits and Flaws listed in Laws of the Night: Revised (and the Camarilla and Sabbat guides). However, this does not mean that you can take particular flaws (like Cold Breeze, Glowing Eyes and Haunted) and expect them to have little impact on your character.

Let's face it -- there are certain flaws (such as the aforementioned Cold Breeze or something like Smell of the Grave) that have game-world impact that is hard to reflect in the real world. How do you indicate to someone that your eyes are glowing (short of using special contacts)? How do you let everyone around you know that your mere presence causes them to get cold? Likewise, possessing certain Merits (such as True Faith) makes other people uncomfortable.

So, in order to stress the impact this has, we are probably going to make characters with certain Merits and Flaws wear a large sign, or a very obvious and horrendous-looking ribbon (perhaps decorated with pink and blue bunnies) to make everyone else realize that something just isn't right with your character. So, other people can either read the sign (which might say something like "I have the 'Smell of the Grave' Flaw, which means I constantly stink like pungent, loamy wet earth!") or see the ribbon and ask (out of character, of course) something like "What the hell is wrong with you?"

Also, it should be pointed out that you should use common sense when selecting Merits and Flaws. The Storytellers reserve the right to reject characters on the basis of the Merits and Flaws. After all, not everyone in the game can have Iron Will, Unbondable, False Reflection, Magic Resistance, Nine Lives or True Faith starting off. Think of it this way -- there are limited amounts of certain Merits and Flaws -- so not everyone can have them if we hope to have any sense of game balance.

This really isn't much of a change to the rules, so much as it is a clarification of what's going on and some guidelines. There are many different ways to handle Influences in a LARP. For instance, the Camarilla Fan Club had its own systems for Influence and the Storytellers know of several other LARPs that have their own rules for influences. After having read over many rules for Influences, the Storytellers have decided to keep things "relatively" simple.

How We Are Running Influences:

Unfortunately, combat can sometimes get a little complicated. Everyone's trying to do what something special, and confusion can very easily become the order of the day. So, in order to give a bit of structure to the chaos, the Storytellers have created a little something we're calling "Turn Time." When a Storyteller invokes Turn Time, it means is that everyone involved in the situation slips out of "normal" time and into a turn-based time-scale. A turn, by the way, is approximately ten seconds long.

During a turn, your characters can do a few things. Your characters can take three steps (towards or away from the situation), spend Blood Traits (up to the per-turn maximum determined by your Generation), activate or use Disciplines, attack or challenge a single target and, of course, talk normally. So, when a Storyteller asks you what you are doing during that particular turn, remember what you can and can't do. You cannot change you declared action.

Initiative is determined by the number of Traits a character has; those characters with more Traits go before characters with less traits. So, a character with Nine Physical Traits would be able to punch someone with Six Mental Traits before that person could Dominate them. Be aware that certain Disciplines are described in Laws of the Night: Revised as going at the "end" of a turn. That means that the use of that power goes last, no matter what, regardless of the number of Traits you have. Other Disciplines state that you can speed them up by using Celerity, which might change when they activate; again, check Laws of the Night: Revised for more details.

Now, certain Merits, Flaws and Disciplines will modify what you can and cannot do during a turn. Certain Flaws, such as Short or Lame will limit the number of steps you can take. Celerity, on the other hand, increases your "movement allowance" radically, depending on your level of Celerity. See pages 140-141 of Laws of the Night: Revised for more on how Celerity affects travel time.

Additionally, people with Celerity can gain extra actions during a turn. For fairness sake, all characters will Celerity active will gain their extra actions at the end of the normal turn, but before the next normal turn begins. Celerity actions will all go at once, but only at that level of Celerity. So, for instance, at the start of a turn, everyone will be able to go. People with Alacrity (the first level of Celerity), will be able to use Alacrity to act before certain people, thus preempting their actions regardless of Initiative (hey, it's what Alacrity does!). Then, after everyone has gone (and people have used Alacrity if needed), everyone with Swiftness will be able to perform an additional action. After everyone with Swiftness acts, people with Legerity can perform an additional action. After everyone with Legerity performs their additional action, a new turn starts, and everyone can take an action, and the cycle continues.

Eventually, the Storytellers will declare an end to Turn Time (usually, when the scene is over), and normal time begins again.

Oh, and speaking of Celerity, we'd like to take a moment or two to discuss using firearms with Celerity. Essentially, we are allowing characters to use Celerity to fire certain guns at faster-than-normal speeds. Specifically, you can use Celerity with revolvers, pump-action guns and semi-automatic guns (i.e., ones that chamber and fire every time you pull the trigger). You cannot use Celerity with fully automatic weapons, nor can you use the Spray weapon ability with Celerity. Additionally, every time you use a gun with Celerity you run the risk of damaging it (e.g., the gun jams, the bullet misfires, there is a "hang-fire", the firing pin breaks, et cetera). Essentially, after firing a gun at Celerity speeds, you must win or tie a Simple Test; if you lose, the gun is damaged and unusable (but you can fix it later using the Repair Ability.

These are just random things that should be pointed out, but like the title says; they don't really fit into any of the above sections....

Regaining Traits:

According to White Wolf, characters get back all Willpower, Traits and Abilities spent or burned or otherwise used at the "start of the next session" in an ongoing chronicle. While this is normally fine, there are times when exact "refresh rates" (for lack of a better phrase) are needed, possibly due to very detailed downtime actions or the timing between events at sessions. Most of the time, the exact rate at which people regain spent Willpower, Traits and Abilities will not matter -- but in case it does become an issue (e.g., during a downtime event which causes combat over more than one day, perhaps), it is assumed that people regain two Abilities (of the player's choice) and one Physical/Mental/Social Trait (one in each category) a day. Spent Willpower is regained at the rate of one Trait per week -- although, if the Storytellers feel that the player has been role-playing their character's Nature exceptionally well, they might grant more than one Willpower Trait during the week, but this is strictly at the Storyteller's discretion. Again, most of the time, this will not be an issue; this ruling is only in place in order to cover situations in which regaining Traits rapidly is an issue, such as being exceptionally active during downtime, or having to heal copious amounts of Aggravated Damage.

Humanity Ratings and Interactions With Mortals:

Please remember that all characters with low Humanity gain a Trait penalty in resolving all Social Challenges with Kine (except for challenges involving intimidation). This penalty does not apply to Ghouls; it only applies to normal humans. Specifically, characters with a Humanity Rating of One have a Three-Trait penalty, characters with a Humanity of Two have a Two-Trait penalty, and characters with a Humanity of Three have a One-Trait penalty. Characters with a Humanity of Four or Five have no such penalty. Additionally, characters that do not have Humanity at all (i.e., follow a Path of Enlightenment) suffer the Three-Trait penalty automatically.

Damage and Wound Penalties:

Just a reminder, for the most part, bullets do Lethal Damage. Incendiary rounds, for instance, do Aggravated Damage. Therefore, gunfire damage is not halved like Bashing damage. Also, remember that the first level of Fortitude (Endurance) allows you to ignore only Wounded and Incapacitated wound penalties. You still suffer from Bruised penalties and are considered one Trait down for all Challenges until healed. Check out pages 198 and 199 in Laws of the Night: Revised to see what the standard wound penalties are. Also, please remember that, in order to heal Aggravated Damage, a character must (in addition to other things) rest for a full day, taking no significant action during their period of rest -- as a result, without certain levels of Fortitude, a character will not be able to heal Aggravated Damage shortly after it is dealt.

Quick Notes on Feeding, Herds and Kine:

The average person has ten Blood Traits and nine Health Levels (Healthy, Healthy, Bruised, Bruised, Bruised, Wounded, Wounded, Incapacitated, Mortally Wounded). This poses a problem for the average Kindred when they feed, since each Blood Trait you take from a person causes a level of Lethal Damage.

What does all this mean to your average hungry Kindred? It means that you can take up to four Blood Traits from a single vessel without hurting them badly enough to need hospitalization. Once you take a fifth Blood Trait, the vessel moves into the Wounded Health Levels, and requires medical attention to heal normally. (They can heal down from Bruised naturally; it just takes time.)

A Kindred can drain up to seven Blood Traits from a single Kine, but they will need medical attention to heal or they will die eventually from blood loss. Additionally, you can drain eight Blood Traits from a single vessel, but then the mortal is dying, and will die in around ten minutes. By the way, dropping off a person with this much blood loss (seven or eight Traits) at a hospital will probably cause the admitting doctors to ask lots of questions and poke around; so you might need to cover up the blood loss somehow.

Now, in a pinch, you can drain nine Blood Traits, but this will automatically kill the vessel and leave you with a near-bloodless corpse. If a Kindred really wants to, they can really work at it to get that final and tenth Blood Trait out, but it will leave the vessel a withered, completely bloodless corpse which will undoubtedly cause the Medical Examiner some concern.

If a Kindred has the Herd Background, they can safely acquire Blood Traits equal to their Herd rating without any problems at all; in theory you could take your full Herd rating a day and not cause any medical problems amidst your herd of mortals. After all, the Herd rating doesn't limit the number of people in your Herd; it just limits the amount of Blood Traits you can safely acquire without any fuss or hunting. Also, certain Influences (such as Health) can be used to acquire Blood Traits -- see the individual Influence listings in Laws of the Night: Revised for more details.

Gaining Experience Points:

All player characters get two XP for attending a session (i.e., signing in, and being at the game for some time). Additional XP will be rewarded for role-playing; XP will be rewarded for both "good role-playing" and "exceptional role-playing." We will also give XP for good costuming. However, since costuming is appreciated and not required, we're going to be limiting the "costume XP" we give out (maybe only giving it once per character or only once every several months), so that those people who cannot come in costume (or do not want to come in costume) aren't unduly penalized for not dressing up. (We want to encourage dressing up, but don't want to force it, you know?). Further, players that submit a session summary to the Storytellers after the session (illuminating what went on for their character, explaining things that occurred, shedding light on the inner workings of their character and so on) might get an additional XP for it, but not always. Also, given the proliferation of digital cameras and so on, if people take pictures of things that happen at a session and give copies of those pictures to the Storytellers, they will get some additional XP if those photos are used on the website. Finally, all characters receive an additional XP at the end of a "chapter" of the game; the Storytellers will determine when a chapter ends and award XP accordingly.

Tremere Learning Thaumaturgy:

Tremere have a very large advantage over other Clans, in that there are almost forty-some-odd different Paths of Thaumaturgy in existence, and all of them technically are "In-Clan" Disciplines. However, learning Thaumaturgy isn't just as simple as learning other Disciplines, simply because Thaumaturgy involves esoteric knowledge and occult forces that are harder to fully comprehend and use when compared to other Disciplines (such as the eight "common" Disciplines). In order to better represent this complexity, when a Tremere wishes to learn a Path of Thaumaturgy or a Ritual, they must find a mentor to explain the Path or Ritual and teach it to them. If a mentor cannot be found, then it is possible for a Tremere to learn Thaumaturgy Paths or Rituals from arcane tomes and texts found in the occult library at any Chantry. Paths and Rituals listed in Laws of the Night: Revised or Laws of the Night: Camarilla Guide are assumed to be the Paths and Rituals described in these libraries. Paths and Rituals from Laws of the Night: Sabbat Guide or Laws of the Night: Storytellers Guide are considered rare and uncommon; therefore the tomes describing them are usually controlled or kept under lock and key. Tremere characters will have to request those books from their superiors, justifying why they wish to learn these atypical Thaumaturgical ways -- and such requests might be denied if there is an in-character reason for doing so. All Thaumaturgy learned from tomes will cost an additional XP (as if it were an out-of-clan Discipline) to reflect the difficulty in learning Thaumaturgy without a teacher.

(And, for the record, this only applies to Tremere attempting to learn Thaumaturgy; other Kindred cannot simply get an occult book from a Chantry Library and learn Thaumaturgy with it.)

The Malkavian Madness Network:

As one of their Clan Advantages, Malkavians have a mystical link to others of their Clan that they can use to recognize other Malkavians and pass along information from time to time. This link is called by many names; the most common are "The Tapestry," "The Cobwebs" and "The Malkavian Madness Network." There are no real rules provided for LARPs on how to use this mystical link, so we have created some.

For purposes of our game, the Tapestry functions like a primitive radio network. Each Malkavian is essentially a receiver for the Network, but only some Malkavians can broadcast. Information received from the Tapestry are not coherent, logical thoughts -- this is not Telepathy or some other form of true mind-to-mind communication, after all. Instead, Malkavians receive what are essentially holistically integrated gestalt clusters of information that have been altered and changed by the Network itself. The Malkavian needs to deconstruct these "thought-clusters" in order to fully understand them as discrete data instead of psychic babble. This deconstruction is semi-automatic; no challenge is needed, but the information might not always be completely understood. (It is essentially the Storyteller's judgment call on how well the message is understood.)

While all Malkavians can receive these thought-clusters, only Malkavians possessing a specific Ability, Malkavian Time (which is described in the Malkavian Clanbook, along with a few more details about the Cobweb), can transmit on the Network. Essentially, without Malkavian Time, a Malkavian cannot modulate their thoughts and broadcast them; they can only receive. It should be pointed out that there is technically no range or time limit on the Network -- a broadcast from a powerful Malkavian could reach around the world, echo and be heard for years.

To broadcast a message on the Tapestry, a character must possess at least one level of Malkavian Time and win a Static Mental Challenge. Only the Ability of Malkavian Time can be used for retests on this Challenge. If the character wins, their message is sent across the Network to be picked up and possibly understood by all Malkavians. It is not possible to broadcast a thought-cluster to just one specific Malkavian; the Network just doesn't work that way.

Finally, Malkavians can use the Network to see if someone else is a Malkavian. In order to do so, a Malkavian must converse with suspected Malkavian for a period of time (maybe five to ten minutes), and then perform a Simple Test with a Storyteller. If they win the Simple Test, the Malkavian learns correctly whether or not the subject is a Malkavian. Losing the test means that the Malkavian gets incorrect information (e.g., a non-Malkavian "registers" as Malkavian, or vice-versa), and tie means that the Malkavian does not get any information at all (e.g., "reply hazy; try again later").

During the course of events, a group of characters might decide to live together in a single structure (two obvious examples would be Tremere living in a Chantry or a group of Nosferatu living in a selected section of the sewers) and effectively create a single Haven for them all to live in. In this case, a special set of Haven rules, the Communal Haven Rules, will be used to determine the ultimate Haven rating of this common living area. In short, each trait spent on "Communal Haven" will essentially give everyone inside of that living area a Haven rating equal to the Communal Haven rating (e.g., if three people each spend a point to create a Communal Haven, the Communal Haven is essentially a Haven x3 for everyone who lives inside of it, even if that included people who did not invest any traits on creating the Communal Haven).

If the Communal Haven is large enough, the people who live inside of it have the option of creating private, "sub-havens" within the Communal Haven; these are effectively smaller bolt-holes or private rooms that only one person knows about or has access to (e.g., a Tremere's private rooms within the Chantry perhaps or smaller sewer section within the larger warrens). A sub-haven is treated as a Haven having a rating of just one above the Communal Haven's rating (e.g., in the example above, a sub-haven created inside the Communal Haven x3 would have a Haven rating of x4). Sub-havens cannot be combined to give select groups of people within the Communal Haven better havens, incidentally, nor can a sub-haven been improved to give more than one bonus rating over the Communal Haven (e.g., you cannot create a Haven x3 within a Communal Haven x3 and effectively have a Haven x6).

Attendance Policy:

In order to essentially keep the storytellers (relatively) sane and prevent the dreaded condition known as "game bloat," we are basically putting a cap on the number of players that can be in the LARP. Effectively, there will be no more than sixty active players at any one time in the game. If and when that day comes when there are sixty players actively involved in the game, the game will effectively be closed to new players and they will only be allowed in if and when active players leave.

How do we determine if a player is active or not? We look at their attendance, oddly enough. Now, while it is hoped that every player can attend every session of the LARP, we understand that real life always takes precedence over a game, and well, sometimes, things happen and you just can't make a game. If you know you will not be able to attend a session in advance (due to work or holidays or whatever), please let the storytellers know, and we'll do what we can to come up with good, in-character reasons for why your character couldn't be at the game and try to shift plot-specific elements for that particular session away from your character so as not to hamper other player's enjoyment of the session. Similarly, if something came up at the last minute and you couldn't make a game, but still want to know what sort of rumors and things your character heard and would have known about, contact the storytellers and we'll let you know as soon as possible.

As long as players and the storytellers remain in contact and we know what's going on with you (and can let other players know as well if/when they attempt to get in contact with your character), everything is fine and dandy, and there won't be problems of any sort. If an extended period of time (defined as three sessions, which is basically three months) goes by without hearing from a player, it will be assumed that they are inactive, and their character will be taken out of play. For all intents and purposes, it will be assumed that the inactive character left town and refuses to communicate with other characters still in St. Louis. If a player wishes to return to the LARP after they have gone inactive, merely contact the storytellers and let us know you're coming back; provided we have not hit our sixty-active-character limit, your character will be reactivated and we'll figure out just what the heck your character has been up to during the time that they were missing from active play.

So, as long as you attend one game every three months or keep in touch with the Storytellers and let us know you can't make games for an extended period of time, you're still in play. If we don't hear for you for three months, or you can't make the games, you're out of play but can rejoin provided we don't have too many players at the moment. Simple, eh?

Well, that's basically it for our Character Creation Rules and House Rules. If you have any questions, feel free to contact the Storytellers, okay? See you at the game!